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IBM, AT&T and Intel Plan National Wireless ISP

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wireless-topic-coming-soon dept.

dailywireless writes "Cometa Networks (formerly The Rainbow Project), a joint venture by IBM, Intel and AT&T, plans to merge Wi-Fi and cellular networks. 'Cometa's vision and plan for this is to offer a single sign-on, single authentication, seamless-roaming nationwide network,' said Michael Mass, vice president of marketing for the Communications Sector at IBM. 802 Plant reports 'AT&T will provide the network infrastructure and management, IBM the wireless installation and back-office system, and Intel the Banias processor. The company plans to have ubiquitous coverage - no further away than 5 minutes walk in an urban area or 5 minutes drive in a rural area - by 2004. which will require the deployment of more than 20,000 hotspot access sites across the U.S.' What fate awaits "free" networks like NYC Wireless, Seattle Wireless or Portland's PersonalTelco? Will AT&T use CoMeta's blanket coverage, with 20,000 "hotspots", to crush the "free" rebellion like a bug?"

9 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Fears by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Okay, time for a PhD EE + MD to tell us that having gigs of porn zipping through our brains every second won't cause any damage.

    1. Re:Fears by Scaba · · Score: 4, Funny

      This brings up something ive always wondered

      first of all.. let me just say that NO.. i am NOT wearing a tin foil hat.. However...

      what are the conciquences of having all these waves being beamed and bounced around the world? Radar.. Radio.. TV.. Microwaves.. Cell Phones.. Wireless Internet.. and God knows what the military is REALLY using up in alaska [fas.org].. ect.. ect.. ect..

      what are the long long term effects to the earth? the us? dose any one know?

      I believe bad grammar and chronic misspellings are the first signs of irreversible brain damage caused by radio waves. You should have worn the hat...

  2. Where to put the antennas by commbat · · Score: 3, Funny

    My house! I'll only charge them $500.00 a month plus unlimited access.

    --
    'Intellectual Properties' are uncontrollable in the wild. To base an economy on them is just stupid.
  3. Waaah by Junky191 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Blah blah corporate rule take over the world why isn't everything free blah blah evil empire conspiracy.

    Nonsense.

  4. Wait, wait wait. Hold on a sec. by twfry · · Score: 2, Funny

    Didn't slashdot JUST post a few articles whining about how the cable companies have a hold on the broadband market and there isn't enough competition? Come on.

  5. EMF by Lieutenant_Dan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does anyone else worry about all these signals in the airwaves? Cell phones, Wi-Fi, Sattelite communications.

    Soon I'll have to put aluminum foil all around my body, and not just my head.

    --
    Wearing pants should always be optional.
  6. Maybe if I start saving now... by jaredcoleman · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can buy it from them in 2005 at pennies on the dollar!

  7. 802 Plant by redfenix · · Score: 2, Funny

    '802 Plant reports'

    I'd like to have one of those, does it have a usb port?

    --
    "It's a very tangled subsystem." --Windows kernel guru
  8. The Short Stick by StingRayGun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who drew the customer service stick? All of these corps. have awefull service.

    Me: Um, im not getting a signal here, is there an outage?

    Att: No, it's your computer.

    Me: You don't understand, im on a mac, it doesn't break.

    Att: we don't support macs, linux boxes or even sun machines for that matter. Not that I know what any of those are, i just read what they tell me.

    Me: What? Your not trained to trouble-shoot a wireless network?

    Att: No they fired all of the actuall computer-people in early 2002, thanks God, they stunk... Anything else I can help you with?

    Me: Um... no, I gues not...

    Att: thanks, have a good day...