Wireless LANs go public

UK ban on for-profit 802.11b services lifted

Carriers and service providers such as BT have been given approval to offer public-access wireless LANs (WLANs) in airports, coffee shops, hotels, stations and other public spaces.

Last week the Radiocommunications Agency (RA) lifted a ban which prohibited the provision of commercial services in the UK over the 2.4GHz radio frequency waveband, which is used by 802.11b-based WLANs to transmit data signals.

The new regulations will come into effect on 31 July and will pave the way for operators to charge mobile workers for access to the Internet through public-access "hotspots".

BT has already said it plans to create up to 4,000 public-access WLANs by 2004, and it is currently in discussions with a variety of site owners, including the Costa Coffee chain as well as hotel, railway station and airport owners. The first five hotspots are due to be revealed later this week and are scheduled to go live in July.

"BT intends to create a national network of access points around key public sites that are within easy reach of business travellers, commuters and anyone else who needs to access data quickly away from their office or home," stated Pierre Danon, chief executive officer of BT Retail.

These hotspots will allow anybody equipped with a notebook or handheld PC and an 802.11b PC Card to gain access to a WLAN provided by the carrier. The WLAN will in turn hook up to a DSL link, leased line or other type of broadband connection to provide those users with high-speed Internet and remote LAN access.

"We'll initially offer straightforward Internet access, then if a user has an IP VPN [virtual private network] client tunnel through to their corporate intranet, they can enjoy a connection offering between 250kbit/s and 500kbit/s," said Keith Trevarrow, programmes manager for BT retail mobility.

The number of users that a hotspot can support at any one time will depend on the contention rate of the wired broadband link behind it. While most sites will connect their WLANs to DSL connections, BT says it will try to ensure that popular sites are served by faster leased line connections to accommodate larger numbers of concurrent users.

Nigel Deighton, vice president for mobile services at research company Gartner, said, "It is significant that we are seeing a major European carrier giving its seal of approval to [WLAN hotspots]. Other fixed carriers which had to spin off their mobile arms may now also look to hotspots as a way back into mobile networks."

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