Working Anywhere

Broadband Wanted In The Air

If this doesn't tell you that Boeing blew it by being premature and pulling out of the flying WiFi space over a year ago, nothing proves it better.

A survey by BarclayCard shows that over fifty percent of the business travel market want Internet connectivity on the go and in the air, at least with the audience under 50. But even over 50 year olds, 40 percent of them, want it too.

Put me in the first group, for I've already had the experience on Lufthansa when they offered Connexxion back in 2006 and LOVED IT. Heck I even made a few VoIP and Skype Calls using Gizmo Project and Counterpath's Eyebeam.

Most of all the sense of knowing all my email was caught up on was a big relief when I got off the plane versus the need to spend an hour cleaning up my inbox as I normally do each morning.

In my view, we're going to see more users the next time around staying connected in the air...

Tungle In The Financial Times

Scheduling meetings is much easier, now that Tungle, an agency client, has released their Blackberry client.

But don't take my word for it. Take global tech journalist Paul Taylor's.  Paul compared the various online scheduling services out there and Tungle came out on top.

An Interesting Stat About Video Conferencing

I'm a big user of both client SightSpeed and Skype video as the entire world I deal with is not all on one platform so seeing this stat about the anticipated rise in Video Conferencing use is no surprise to me, or many of my fellow VoIP bloggers out there.

What it shows me is the bloggosphere is usually very tuned into the future, and while some call it an echo chamber (bloggers talking to other bloggers) it really is more of a forward looking reflector of where things are headed. Bloggers are in my view the live along the first two blocks of what I have dubbed the

Boulevard of Communications. Those two blocks are where the Tastemaker and Trendsetter houses are, and its farther down the Avenue where Thought Leaders and Media Gatekeepers Live, with The Followers at the far end of the Avenue.

Mobile Data Dongle Drop In Price in UK

If you are in the UK you may want to take a serious look at the new pricing for the mobile data dongles from Hutchison 3G (aka Three).

The price of the dongle has been halved and the plan prices are very tasty.

Now, what makes 3G data interesting to me is this 3G/4G data router that has Voice QoS built in. By combining a new HSUPA router, and unlimited data plan and a data card like the new Sierra Wireless HUSPA 880/881 wireless modems, you could just about have all the VoIP you need wherever you go.

Mobile Data Dongle Drop In Price in UK

If you are in the UK you may want to take a serious look at the new pricing for the mobile data dongles from Hutchison 3G (aka Three).

The price of the dongle has been halved and the plan prices are very tasty.

Traveling and Need Mobile Data

This site, entitled Prepaid Wireless Internet Access, is a wonderful resource. It's User Generated and Supported so it's very much up to date as long as someone provides the details.

As a starting point, it's great!

Would You Like WiFi With Your Coffee?

Esme Vos and I were having coffee in San Francisco a week or so back when she revealed her idea that would solve San Francisco, and many other cities Muni WiFi woes.

Now why does this make sense versus the stupid concept of what I labeled Homeless Wireless two years or so back when Earthlink and the various cities followed some consultants lead on how to best deploy WiFi?

Simple. It works best indoors. The model Earthlink was following was great if you were:

a) On the street

b) Ten to fifteen feet inside a building

c) No Higher than the second floor of most buildings

Last time I checked, cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia were building all kinds of new office towers (have you seen the Comcast Tower in Philadelphia?) Well there's no way the Earthlink model would have worked there.

Esme's model, which takes into account the many arcane and "interesting" laws in San Francisco is simple. Pass a law.

Now here's the great thing. Give the coffee shop operators an annual credit against their taxes for the cost of a 1.5 meg DSL line and a router. Let's see, that's about $300 a year, versus the millions it would cost to build out the system that never came to be.

WiFi Up, WiFi Down

Earthlink is bagging it in Philadelphia and wants to take their equipment home. Damn carpetbaggers. But, I recall saying at a past MuniWiFi event that given what I know about the politicians in my home town I'm not surprised at the deal that was done and the problems that are arising from it.

If there's one thing I've learned in life it's you can't fight City Hall, and when you toss in telco influence on City Hall, you really can't fight them at all, as this is the result. The telco's have figured out how to keep City Hall on their side and despite all the good that Muni WiFi could bring, there has never really been buy in across the board.

Now here's an interesting idea on how to do WiFi from TelAlaska. Make the local businesses supply it. Funny thing, my good friend in the industry Esme Vos had the same idea.

Airport Broadband at San Diego Airport Part Two

I'm on my way to the Bay Area for a week's worth of meetings, meet up and to also assist winemaker friend Sylvain Fadat of Domaine d'Aupilhac on Monday at the annual Kermit Lynch Client event that starts tonight.

As I await my slightly delayed Southwest flight to SFO I ran a fast speed test.

Download 14403kb/s
Upload 8359 kb/s

To me, that rocks and shows that making pointed comments directly to the airport management as I have really didn't fall on deaf ears.