Free WiFi Hard to Beat
My friends Chuck and Penny, who live down the street from me in Cupertino, have won the free WiFi lottery.
Their house is next to a light pole topped by a transmitter belonging to MetroFi, the Mountain View company now offering free wireless Internet service in much of Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
Because Chuck and Penny are so near the transmitter, they can receive MetroFi's broadband signal anywhere in their home using nothing more than a notebook computer with built-in WiFi or a desktop computer with an inexpensive WiFi adapter.
I demonstrated this freebie for Chuck last week, using my notebook, and his eyes popped wide open.
``I wonder when my contract for DSL is up,'' Chuck said. AT&T, the phone company known until recently as SBC, may have just lost a customer.
Not that everyone is so lucky. Most people in neighborhoods served by MetroFi -- including me -- need extra equipment to connect.
But free is still a price that's hard to beat. With broadband Internet access costing $30 a month or more, setting aside short-term teaser rates for new customers, MetroFi could shake up the complacent duopoly of AT&T and Comcast.
MetroFi is a pioneer in the hype-filled field of municipal wireless, where proponents give starry-eyed speeches about a blanket of free or low-cost WiFi service covering urban and suburban regions throughout the nation and the world.
This is the same WiFi technology used for home wireless computer networking, although with fancier transmitters typically installed on street lamps or phone poles.
Citywide WiFi networks have pluses and minuses.
WiFi transmitters are inexpensive, allowing service at much lower costs than competitors such as cell-phone systems. But WiFi signals have limited range and are easily blocked by walls or dense foliage.
If you're going to use the MetroFi service, it's important to understand these limitations up front.
Their house is next to a light pole topped by a transmitter belonging to MetroFi, the Mountain View company now offering free wireless Internet service in much of Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
Because Chuck and Penny are so near the transmitter, they can receive MetroFi's broadband signal anywhere in their home using nothing more than a notebook computer with built-in WiFi or a desktop computer with an inexpensive WiFi adapter.
I demonstrated this freebie for Chuck last week, using my notebook, and his eyes popped wide open.
``I wonder when my contract for DSL is up,'' Chuck said. AT&T, the phone company known until recently as SBC, may have just lost a customer.
Not that everyone is so lucky. Most people in neighborhoods served by MetroFi -- including me -- need extra equipment to connect.
But free is still a price that's hard to beat. With broadband Internet access costing $30 a month or more, setting aside short-term teaser rates for new customers, MetroFi could shake up the complacent duopoly of AT&T and Comcast.
MetroFi is a pioneer in the hype-filled field of municipal wireless, where proponents give starry-eyed speeches about a blanket of free or low-cost WiFi service covering urban and suburban regions throughout the nation and the world.
This is the same WiFi technology used for home wireless computer networking, although with fancier transmitters typically installed on street lamps or phone poles.
Citywide WiFi networks have pluses and minuses.
WiFi transmitters are inexpensive, allowing service at much lower costs than competitors such as cell-phone systems. But WiFi signals have limited range and are easily blocked by walls or dense foliage.
If you're going to use the MetroFi service, it's important to understand these limitations up front.
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