Baltimore Inner Harbor To Go Wireless

An anonymous reader writes "The City of Baltimore has made free wireless internet available in the Inner Harbor in hopes of bringing in more tourists and business conventions. According to this article on Sunspot Internet service will be available free of charge to portable computers from the Baltimore Science Center to the World Trade Center along the touristy waterfront. Need to check your e-mail when sailing the Chesapeake Bay? Just dock at the Rusty Scupper and whip out your laptop."

Comments

Is this completely non-secure?

[sixteenraisins]

I mean, can you really take a Wi-Fi equipped laptop and download mp3's to your heart's content without being tracked down to your IP? Or launch a DDoS attack anonymously?

Again, I guess you hafta take the good with the bad. I can imagine it won't be long before these wireless providers start paying attention to security on these networks.

William

Big Brother Factor?

[lugar]

It'll be interesting to see how closely the wireless access is monitored. A government-provided portal to the Internet. Scary thought. It's got to be monitored to some degree, right? Otherwise it's simply a great open portal for spammers.

Traffic Wireless

[LegendOfLink]

I live in Chicago, and let me tell you, what they (all big cities, not just Chicago) need is wireless connectivity through rush hour. It would be damn skippy to be able to read a few stories on Slashdot while sitting 45 minutes on the Ike without moving three inches.

Of course, I'm neglecting to think about all the accidents that might be caused...oh well, I guess we can sacrifice safety to read /.

The wrong attitude

[GillBates0]

But Paul Dowling, owner of Believe Wireless, a Towson-based company that charges customers $29.95 per month for wireless Internet access in Canton, Fells Point and elsewhere in the city, said he's worried that too much free service could drive companies such as his out of business or away from the Baltimore area.

"It's hard enough to compete against other companies. If the city starts providing for free what we make people pay for, it could really hurt us," Dowling said.

This is exactly the kind of attitude that hurts technology and customers. It results in monopolistic companies trying everything possible to stick to the existing model, and try and kill of competition (albeit superior in technology and better for the customer).

Microsoft's been trying to hurt Linux as much as possible, because it's a free alternative to their OS, which could potentially kill them.And ofcourse, our beloved RIAA's been trying to kill away a newer, technologically better solution, rather than trying to innovate and provide alternatives that people would pay for.

The right attitude should be to enhance their product so that customers would be willing to pay them for it, over the other cheaper (or free) alternative. Sheesh.

$29.95/month hot spot service

[deander2]

haha! this is a quote from a company that sells a $29.95/month hot spot service, and is upset with the city's new offering:

"It's hard enough to compete against other companies. If the
city starts providing for free what we make people pay for, it
could really hurt us," Dowling said.

DUH! ;-p

i do think that metered wifi access will fail as a business model. virtually every business where the cost of tracking and billing access is MORE than the cost of providing said access becomes just another gratuity. (like a public water fountain)