Copyright (c) 2003, 
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.MANY CONSUMERS have grown tired of hearing of the coming of mobile broadband.
The ability to surf the Web wirelessly has been here for a few years. Yet the mobile technology, so-called 3G, or third generation, still falls short of expectations. With 3G offered through wireless networks -- embedded into phones, other mobile devices and cards that slip into laptops -- users can log on to the Web from anywhere. But the speeds generally are as fast as dial-up at best.
Now, though, users of mobile devices are starting to get Web access at speeds that finally meet those early promises. It's happening primarily through the technology known as Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, which gives consumers fast wireless connections to the Web as long as they are within a few hundred feet of the connection's source, such as a DSL or cable modem. These connections are increasingly showing up in public areas, known as hot spots, like hotels, airport lounges, bookstores and even Starbucks coffee shops.
And there's more improvement in the offing. Future technologies include even faster versions of Wi-Fi, with broader coverage than what's available now. Some telecommunications companies are working to introduce newer 3G technologies that will significantly increase speeds. Meanwhile, some companies are creating software that will allow users to switch between wide-area cellphone networks and smaller Wi-Fi hot spots, which could make wireless-data use easier for consumers.
"Compared to a year ago, the landscape has totally changed for wireless data," says Edward Rerisi, an analyst at Allied Business Intelligence, a technology consulting firm in Oyster Bay, N.Y. He points to the massive increase in Wi-Fi hot spots, from about 1,400 two years ago to more than 12,000 by the end of this year. "For the most part," adds Mr. Rerisi, "what's available to the masses is [Wi- Fi], but you look forward another 18 months and the options are going to increase even more with wireless broadband."
In just the past few months, nearly every major telecom company -- including New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and San Antonio- based SBC Communications Inc. -- has announced some sort of deal to allow its customers to get wireless access to the Web via Wi-Fi hot spots.
But the services are still in their early days, and relying on Wi-Fi to get something that approaches widespread coverage requires multiple subscriptions to different service providers; there aren't Wi-Fi roaming agreements between different major phone providers. Plus, when it comes to laptops, rough patches still need some smoothing out. Logging on in public locations still can be a major headache, sometimes requiring users to make highly technical changes to Wi-Fi software configurations.
Leading the way in public Wi-Fi connections is T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG. The company provides Wi-Fi in about 2,700 hot spots in Starbucks, Borders bookstores and airport lounges run by United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. T-Mobile says it will have 4,000 hot spots in place by the end of the year. Their prices range from $6 an hour to $39.99 a month.
Most major telecom providers also have announced agreements for subscribers to use hot spots built by Austin, Texas-based Wayport Inc., which offers Wi-Fi access in about 600 hotels and airports, with various price options. For instance, Sprint PCS, the wireless division of Sprint Corp., Overland Park, Kan., says it will have Wi-Fi in about 2,100 locations by early next year, requiring daily fees starting at $6.95. Customers of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Redmond, Wash., can sign up for a monthly $69.99 subscription to use roughly 900 Wi-Fi hot spots. And a company called Boingo Wireless, based in Santa Monica, Calif., offers more than 1,400 Wi-Fi hot spots for monthly subscriptions beginning at $21.95.
Customers who subscribe to Verizon DSL or dial-up Internet services in New York City, meanwhile, have free access to Wi-Fi locations around the borough of Manhattan, usually emanating from a phone booth and extending for a couple of hundred feet around the area. (Look for the little black top hat on the roof of the booth.) Verizon doesn't yet offer the services elsewhere around the country.
Another option: Some hotel chains, like Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, N.Y., offer Wi-Fi directly to consumers, so users don't need a subscription with a provider, like T-Mobile or Verizon. The hotels charge an average of $9.95 a day.
For those who don't want to search for Wi-Fi hot spots, there's 3G. Since it's part of the telecom companies' regular networks, 3G allows cellphone and laptop users to access the Web from anywhere they can get a signal, unlike the limited range of a Wi-Fi signal.
But the technology's rollout over the past 18 months or so has provided speeds sometimes slower than dial-up. Plus, it's the same spotty service that frustrates cellphone customers making voice calls. And that's a bit of a turnoff for consumers increasingly accustomed to broadband speeds on their home computers.
To overcome such slowness, Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group PLC of the U.K., recently upgraded its network using a new technology called 1X EV-DO in Washington and San Diego. The technology is capable of average speeds about 10 times faster than a dial-up connection. That's still less than the potential speeds of Wi-Fi connections, but it's similar to speeds offered through some home DSL connections. (Wi-Fi is only as fast as the Internet connection it's tied to.)
But the bulk of U.S. consumers have to wait a while before their providers will offer true wireless broadband over their cellular networks. Sprint PCS, which uses the same technology as Verizon Wireless, says it isn't planning to upgrade to the higher-speed version, which will be called EV-DV, until 2006, when they can accommodate voice traffic using the same platform as well. AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, and Cingular Wireless, which is owned by SBC and BellSouth Corp., are all upgrading their networks, but none of them will be offering true broadband speeds anytime soon. AT&T Wireless plans to roll out a technology called WCDMA in four U.S. cities by the end of 2004, which the carrier says will enable much faster average speeds.
Some companies, meanwhile, are coming up with a way to give users the best of both worlds. For instance, T-Mobile offers a deal that combines the slower but more widely available cellphone network and the faster but scarcer Wi-Fi hot spots. For $49.98, customers get unlimited access to wireless data over T-Mobile's cellphone network and access to all of the provider's hot spots. (It's $39.98 for current T-Mobile subscribers.)
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Mr. Drucker is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's New York bureau. He can be reached at jesse.drucker@wsj.com.
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