NCSoft Austin to Colocate with Equinix

Grok Headline matches for NCSoft Austin to Colocate with Equinix

Might & Magic Creator Joins Garriott At
NCSoft

Might & Magic Creator Joins Garriott At
NCSoft 06/08/2004 06:30 PM
Slashdot-31 minutes agoThanks to Google News for its link to the press release announcing Jon Van Caneghem, founder of New World Computing, has been hired by MMO developer NCSoft to ...

New NCsoft online games show the best,
worst

New NCsoft online games show the best,
worst 05/31/2004 03:40 PM
Tallahassee.com - Fri May 28, 10:33 am GMT

NCsoft Shows Best, Worst in Online Games
(AP)

NCsoft Shows Best, Worst in Online Games
(AP) 05/25/2004 08:08 AM
AP - "City of Heroes" and "Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle" have so little in common, it's hard to believe both new video games are published by the same company, South Korean-based NCsoft.

I-Cyberhk Moves to Equinix IDC

I-Cyberhk Moves to Equinix IDC 03/22/2005 05:12 PM
Web Host Industry Review Mar 22 2005 9:15PM GMT

Ticketmaster, Equinix in collocation
deal

Ticketmaster, Equinix in collocation
deal 01/09/2004 11:16 PM
Ticketmaster has chosen a Midwest collocation center run by Equinix to support its East Coast online ticket sales operation.

Equinix to Host Network Forum

Equinix to Host Network Forum 04/04/2005 03:09 PM
Web Host Industry Review Apr 4 2005 6:45PM GMT

Equinix Debuts Peering Monitoring Tool

Equinix Debuts Peering Monitoring Tool 07/26/2004 07:44 PM
theWHIR Jul 26 2004 11:09PM GMT

Equinix Engineer Elected to ICANN
Organization

Equinix Engineer Elected to ICANN
Organization 10/30/2003 11:48 PM
theWHIR Oct 30 2003 12:43PM ET

Radio Television Hong Kong Moves to
Equinix IDC

Radio Television Hong Kong Moves to
Equinix IDC 12/22/2003 04:06 PM
theWHIR Dec 22 2003 3:03PM ET

Equinix Expands GigE Exchange Service to
Southeast Asia

Equinix Expands GigE Exchange Service to
Southeast Asia 11/06/2003 07:24 PM
Equinix IBX centers in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, the New York City area, San Jose, Calif.'s Silicon Valley, Sydney and Tokyo, and is used by Yahoo!, Google ...

New NCsoft games show the best, worst in
online games

New NCsoft games show the best, worst in
online games 06/01/2004 08:24 PM
Augustachronicle.com - Mon May 31, 07:30 am GMT

"Austin Bay"

"Austin Bay" 03/17/2005 02:50 AM

Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot

Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot 06/13/2004 06:25 PM

Austin Bay at Instapundit

Austin Bay at Instapundit 07/13/2004 12:19 AM
an answer for you .. Instapundit

instapundit.com/archives/016513.php
track this site | 4 links

Free Austin

Free Austin 11/10/2003 10:53 PM
This Austin Statesman story ran last week; if you missed it, it's worth checking out: Austin has a thriving Wi-Fi community, many of whom believe that hot spots should be free. One group of volunteers that will set up a hot spot for venue, sometimes using donated gear. I talked to Rich MacKinnon, the founder of Less Networks and a driving force behind Austin’s free networks movement, and was impressed by his passion and drive. While this article points out that the free hot spots in Austin are often more crowded then the cafes where you have to pay to get online, I still think that ultimately there will be space for both free and fee. The trick will be offering something worth paying for in the fee sites, such as added security or guaranteed bandwidth....

Free Wi-fi in Austin

Free Wi-fi in Austin 01/25/2004 09:52 PM

Found this list:

Free Wireless Internet Access Points in Austin, Texas

... and I figured everyone I knew needed to know where all the free wi-fi spots were in Austin too.

Austin to New Jersey with Wireless

Austin to New Jersey with Wireless 05/03/2004 08:42 PM
New York Times staffer John Schwartz drives his daughter from Austin to New Jersey in search of colleges and Wi-Fi: Schwartz is a keen observer of the Wi-Fi scene, and he writes of his fairly easy process of finding Wi-Fi hotspots along his long route. He includes a bit of found poetry from the Flying J, one of the many thousands of truck stops that are or will become hotspots over the next year: God Bless America / Position Open / Wireless Available. Schwartz started in Austin, and he also filed this article about the work being carried out by Richard MacKinnon, Jon Lebkowsky, and a cast of dozens involved in Austin Wireless City to spread free Wi-Fi across the town....

Austin Park Gets Wireless

Austin Park Gets Wireless 05/20/2004 11:29 AM
Austin Wireless City worked with the City of Austin to build a hotspot in Republic Square Park: The two have also partnered for hotspots at One Texas Center and city hall. Republic Square is the first of four Austin parks to get wireless. The City of Austin is apparently really supportive of Austin Wireless City projects, which will only encourage more Wi-Fi in Austin....

More on Austin Apple Store

More on Austin Apple Store 03/06/2004 01:59 AM

Earlier this week (2/23) ifoAppleStore.com posted this:

I have updated information on the Barton Creek (Tex.) store... it will be located in the "R" section of the Austin mall, in space #8 on the upper level, in a space formerly occupied by Fast Forward.

Still no word on when it'll open.

Spyware Infiltrates Austin

Spyware Infiltrates Austin 02/01/2005 10:07 PM
Spyware infections are on the rise in Austin, and software tools are not enough. Local company Aces Technology Services explains the risks and offers help. [PRWEB Jan 20, 2005]

I leave for Austin in the morning.

I leave for Austin in the morning. 03/13/2003 10:26 AM
I'm completely exhausted at the moment, and I'm sure I'll be moreso in two days. But it'll be fun. BTW, in case you're interested, I'm not on the shedule, but I have a guest appearance on Craig Nevi

Free and Easy in Austin

Free and Easy in Austin 11/03/2003 11:13 AM
Austin's free hotspot locations grow: This article implies that Austin is unique, and while it does have an interesting confluence of several trends -- and Schlotzsky's and Wayport are both headquartered there -- there are dozens of free locations in other large cities as well. It seems to be more of a coalescing community attitude, however, that free hotspots make more sense than for-fee ones that's provoked this and similar articles. The Schlotzsky's survey, by the way, is months old, but the company keeps bringing it out. They have both free computer access (via Apple iMacs) and free wireless at their test stores, and their survey showed that six percent of visitors to the stores during the survey came because of wireless access. At $7 for an average customer purchase, that equates to $100,000 in gross additional revenue per store, not overall, as the article implied. But Schlotzsky's should really revamp those numbers given the massive publicity they've received and the length of the experiment. [via Smart Mobs]...

The Austin Chronicle: Screens: The Hot
Spot

The Austin Chronicle: Screens: The Hot
Spot 06/14/2004 10:08 AM
Austin is the Wi-Fi capital .. an article .. he builds .. More > .. [Link]

austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-11/screens_featur e.html
track this site | 4 links

Signing Sunday in Austin at SXSW

Signing Sunday in Austin at SXSW 03/08/2004 11:03 PM
A reminder of my upcoming Austin signing, this Sunday:

I will be signing copies of Eastern Standard Tribe Austin at the SXSW conference, immediately following the Bloggie Award Ceremony on the trade-floor.

March 15, 1:30PM, at the book signing area of the SXSW Interactive Festival Trade Show & Exhibition on the third floor of the Austin Convention Center.

If you're not a registered attendee at SXSW, you can get a free trade-floor pass here.

Link

Podcast: On Site with Wayport's CEO in
Austin

Podcast: On Site with Wayport's CEO in
Austin 03/19/2005 02:24 AM

During my visit to Austin this week, I stopped by Wayport and recorded this interview: David Vucina, CEO of Wayport, the leading hotspot infrastructure builder, reseller network, and managed services operator in the industry, lead me on a tour around their new facility in Austin, Texas. I have to say it's quite impressive. I wondered aloud why all the functions of the company were in one place: warehouse, hotspot assembly, customer service, network operation system, system management, and administration. But after taking the tour, it was pretty clear: the company is more like a big IT (information technology) department for hire than, for instance, an Internet service provider.

There are times in this virtual world when it's useful seeing firsthand how things are done. For instance, I was able to see the assembly facility Wayport is using to prep the equipment that goes into the field. They have a separate area for assembling custom McDonald's boxes because they're putting so many of them together. The assembly manager said that they had shipped over 400 hotspot boxes of all kinds in a recent day. They're typically handling site surveys for 25 to 100 sites per week, and that isn't slacking off.

A customer service operator gave me a tour through their CRM software that lets them slice and dice problems in a variety of ways, such as all previous problems that hotel room or how that particular user authenticated onto their network. This is typical stuff for any robust customer service/technical support operation, but the tools are quite nice and the Tier 2 reps have access to very level technical details about the access point or access port.

In the 30-minute audio interview I recorded with Vucina, we talked largely about the hotspot world, Wayport's position in it, and what the company will do when the U.S. becomes largely unwired. We also spoke about the nature of Wi-Fi in complement to 3G cellular data.

You can download the interview as a plain MP3 file [15 MB] or as a ZIP archive of that file [11 MB]

"Austin Bay sends Glenn Reynolds"

"Austin Bay sends Glenn Reynolds" 07/13/2004 03:22 PM

My talk from the EFF-Austin party audio

My talk from the EFF-Austin party audio 03/13/2003 11:28 AM
Wiley Wiggins was kind enough to capture (and host!) the audio off my 16-minute talk at the EFF-Austin/EFF/ACTLab/Polycot party at SXSW. Can you spot the time I said "NSA" when I meant "SS?" 16.5MB MP3 Link Discuss (Thanks, Wiley!)

Austin Works to Trump Starbucks

Austin Works to Trump Starbucks 02/19/2004 12:43 PM
Partners in Free Wi-Fi, Austin Wireless, and Less Networks are offering free music to hotspots users in Austin: The groups have been working together to help local venues build free hotspots. The offering starts today and will extend through the end of SXSW 2004, the music festival. Hotspot users, who don't pay for access, will be able to listen to more than 500 songs for free. Users must have the iTunes player and the songs are available through Apple iTunes music share. Less Networks sees this as a one-up on an earlier Starbucks offering where visitors could listen to a CD for free. The groups have built 25 locations in Austin since September and have 3,600 registered users. Around 100 people log on to the networks every day. Workers don't charge venues for the help in setting up the networks or the software, which lets venues manage the hotspot....

City Of Austin Migrating To
OpenOffice.org

City Of Austin Migrating To
OpenOffice.org 12/17/2003 10:45 AM
An anonymous reader writes "NewsForge.com has a story up this morning about the City of Austin and the results of their pilot program on OpenOffice.org. The ...

"Austin columnist Molly Ivins "

"Austin columnist Molly Ivins " 12/05/2003 10:14 AM

Livejournallers save Austin mural

Livejournallers save Austin mural 01/08/2004 07:46 PM
A mural on the side of a shop in Austin that was to painted over by the new owners has been saved by a campaign organized by Livejournallers. Link (via Torrez)

Austin Project Featured at SXSW

Austin Project Featured at SXSW 03/06/2004 01:49 AM
The Austin Chronicle takes a look at the Austin Wireless City Project's initiatives around the SXSW music festival, which happens next weekend: The project is offering free iTunes music to users of the free hotspots set up by the project. In addition, the IC2 Institute, a research unit of the University of Texas, is making a presentation during an Interactive Conference going on in conjunction with the festival. The institute will talk about how everyday people can benefit from connectivity. Howard Rheingold, who wrote Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, will also speak at the conference. Other coverage of the Austin Wireless City Project's efforts include a story written by its co-founder, Rich MacKinnon. He offers a really great description of all the parties that benefit when a venue offers free hotspots. He gives the example of a free hotspot at an Austin restaurant and describes how a consultancy made money to install the router, a printing company was paid to make new coasters touting the free Wi-Fi, MacKinnon's company Less Networks pays a hosting facility to support the hotspot and a PR firm is paid to promote the free hotspots. He notes that even the big companies make money here, including Kinko's which printed a new sign, CompUSA which sold the access point, which was made by Buffalo, and SBC which provides the DSL connection. The list actually goes on, offering a strong argument for the business case behind free hotspots. [both links via Less Networks]...

Kentucky Drops Utah 62-52 in Austin
Semis (AP)

Kentucky Drops Utah 62-52 in Austin
Semis (AP) 03/26/2005 01:51 AM
AP - Regardless of whether Kentucky goes on to win the national championship, the Wildcats accomplished something Friday night no team has done all season: stymie Utah's Andrew Bogut. Primarily using two 7-foot backups and lots of help from smaller guys, the Wildcats harassed Bogut into the poorest shooting game of his All-American season and showed off their depth, spreading their scoring in a 62-52 victory in the Austin Regional semifinals.

Apple planning Austin, TX retail store

Apple planning Austin, TX retail store 01/17/2004 10:38 PM
The Austin American-Statesman notes that "it looks like Apple is about to open a store in Dell's back yard."...

Apple to open Austin, TX store on June
12

Apple to open Austin, TX store on June
12 06/04/2004 10:47 AM
Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president for retail, has confirmed that Apple will open its Austin, Texas, retail store on June 12 in the Barton Creek Square mall...

Austin considering shift from Microsoft
to free software

Austin considering shift from Microsoft
to free software 12/18/2003 02:12 AM
Miami Herald Dec 18 2003 1:47AM ET

Austin tests desktop Linux waters

Austin tests desktop Linux waters 12/19/2003 06:19 PM
ZDNet Dec 19 2003 5:37PM ET

BRS Group Selling Austin Data Center

BRS Group Selling Austin Data Center 04/21/2004 02:29 PM
theWHIR Apr 21 2004 6:41PM GMT

Wi-Fi Alliance Moves to Austin, and a TV
Station Speculates

Wi-Fi Alliance Moves to Austin, and a TV
Station Speculates 04/23/2004 08:23 PM
The Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that certifies Wi-Fi equipment, moves its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas: The Wi-Fi Alliance is more a virtual organization with few staffers. The test labs it work with are under contract all over the place. A television station in Austin picks up the story and thinks that even though it will create no jobs in the Austin area, that there's a large impact involved. Sorry, folks, there won't be. That's not to put down Austin (don't mess with Texas, as you know). Austin has a variety of free, community, and for-fee groups and companies including Wayport and Austin Wireless City. (Inset picture of Wayport's headquarters.)...
Grok Description matches for NCSoft Austin to Colocate with Equinix
GrokA matches for NCSoft Austin to Colocate with Equinix

Wyndham Re-Ups with Wayport

Wyndham Re-Ups with Wayport 06/21/2004 01:50 PM
Wyndham has long been the mainstay of Wayport's hotel market, and they've re-upped: The new contract will last three years, and comes at a time that Wayport is exploring new business models for providing flat-rate reseller access to their retail partners--hotels and other venues could follow, but not for months. Wyndham has both wired and Wi-Fi service, mostly in-room wired broadband and Wi-Fi in public spaces, and provides free Internet access at its 85 properties to members of its By Request affinity club. Membership in the club is free, but must be completed before checking in....

Wayport Raises $20M

Wayport Raises $20M 08/03/2004 12:47 PM
Wayport reports raising an additional $20 million in private placement: We try to avoid reporting on routine financial events such as funding rounds unless the company has critical importance to the industry or its financial well-being is in question. Wayport told me about a year ago that they were seeking additional funds in a round that would allow them to expand their sales force, among other purposes. That round just closed at $20 million. I'm not surprised that Wayport was able to raise these funds given their Wi-Fi World retail model of charging announced several weeks ago, which provides them a sustainable model from Day One for unwiring McDonald's locations, for which they have the exclusive franchise contract. Wayport was also selected as the managed services provider for SBC's FreedomLink to build out the several thousand UPS Store locations. In the wake of May's announced Cometa Networks shutdown due to lack of funds, it's useful to know that Wayport has these additional funds in hand. Wayport disclosed its revenue predictions in May when they announced their Wi-Fi World pricing model for partners....

Wayport Metrics

Wayport Metrics 05/25/2004 04:20 PM
During Wayport's briefing yesterday, they shared key metrics about the company: It's rare to see this much data from any hotspot provider, which goes to show the confidence Wayport has in its current and future businesses. The old saying is, never write your competitor's business plan for them. Wayport fears no such animal, it's clear, especially with its Wi-Fi World partnership model ahead of it. In terms of core connections or 24-hour sessions, Wayport shows 124,000 in the first quarter of 2001, rising to 301,000 in first quarter of 2003, and 645,000 in the first quarter of this year. They estimate 714,000 connections for this current quarter, and over a million for third quarter. These connections include all direct and third-party pay-as-you-go and subscriber uses. Wayport also provided its raw revenue figures for the last three year. The company started with $1.5 million received in 2002's first quarter, rising consistently and steadily to $6.1 million in the first quarter of 2004. They estimate $6.7 million for second quarter, $8.7 million for third quarter, and over $10 million in the final quarter of 2004. The company's CEO expected to produce about $1.5 to $2 million per week within 12 months for an annual runrate of $75 to $100 million. Under Wi-Fi World, subscriber connections ostensibly won't be counted because Wayport will receive fixed fees per venue regardless of connections. However, Wayport will still collect walk-up fees for two-hour sessions ($2.95 for two hours) which they will share with the retail venue....

Wayport Hits 6,300 Locations

Wayport Hits 6,300 Locations 01/04/2005 02:27 AM
Wayport has 6,300 locations equipped; 5 million sessions in 2004: Wayport announced that they have exceeded 6,300 hotspots between locations with which they have directly contracted and those that they operate as a managed service, primarily for SBC Communications's FreedomLink network. The company also said that they had 5 million connections in 2004, with 600,000 in October alone. Wayport had about 1,000 location at the end of 2003, and a significant subset included in-room wired broadband hotels with Wi-Fi just in lobbies. Virtually all new locations are Wi-Fi only in retail establishments. Dan Lowden, vice president of marketing at Wayport, said in an interview on Monday that Wayport believes they are now the biggest Wi-Fi network in the U.S., having exceeded T-Mobile's count, which is just under 5,300 according to T-Mobile's location finder. (This doesn't include T-Mobile's fee-based roaming partners.) "We're very very excited about it; it's a big milestone for us. We're excited to be the biggest in the United States," Lowden said. Lowden said that Wayport is adding about 150 locations per week. They expect to exceed 6,000 McDonald's restaurants by third quarter of 2005, pushing their total over 10,000 locations. Because certain large footprints have already been tied up, such as many coffee chains, and because of Wayport's exclusive deal for fast-food restaurants with McDonald's, Wayport is pushing into different kinds of spaces and services. For instance, their deal with Hertz gives them an alternate presence at airports. And Wayport will work with venues that may not need public Wi-Fi at all, or it's an adjunct to the real purpose: private services like cashless transactions (which they're doing with McDonald's) and security. Lowden also noted that even with the hotel market so widely built out with high-speed services, there's still a lot of room to grow or rebuild. "We continue to see opportunities where folks have had three or four service providers over the last three or four years," he said. Wayport's now an established firm with major partners making it easy for them to bat clean up in cases such as these. The company has grown fairly rapidly in the last year to handle the new contracts with over 330 employees now, with 150 hired in the last year....

Radio Free Wayport

Radio Free Wayport 03/14/2005 05:47 PM
Wayport streams music in Austin's airport: The streaming audio service is available to Wayport users at the Austin-Bergstrom airport through a relationship with the Texas Music Group, which features many local artists. The music service is free once you're connected to Wayport's network in the airport. The timing is perfect just before SXSW, which I'll be attending the interactive portion of....

Linux Powers Wayport

Linux Powers Wayport 02/18/2004 05:18 PM
Newly liberated ex-Wayport, ex-Musenki, ex-Vivato engineer Jim Thompson outs Wayport's hardware secret: Jim notes in his new blog that Wayport's success is definitely partly dependent on its choice long-ago of 802.11b (radical at the time) and Linux. Jim imagines having to fly out and remotely fix thousands of Windows-based authentication and billing modules when Windows viruses and worms hit -- not a problem for Wayport because of their non-MS infrastructure. Jim was CTO at Wayport for several years, and his work at Musenki led to the bridging box that Vivato sells now....

McDonald's Chooses Wayport for New Wi-Fi
(AP)

McDonald's Chooses Wayport for New Wi-Fi
(AP) 04/13/2004 12:40 AM
AP - McDonald's Corp. has chosen Wayport Inc. to provide wireless Internet service in dining rooms and drive-through windows at several thousand of its U.S. restaurants.

Wayport to be Replaced at SeaTac

Wayport to be Replaced at SeaTac 02/10/2004 02:40 AM
The new Wi-Fi network that AT&T Wireless is building at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will replace the existing network which is owned and operated by Wayport: Wayport appeared unaware of the new network or the impending cancellation of its relationship with the airport. The airport will own the network that AT&T Wireless is building and AT&T Wireless isn't charging the airport for the equipment or installation. The Wi-Fi network comes for free as part of AT&T Wireless's contract to install cellular equipment that will improve cell coverage inside the airport. Airport officials have not decided who will operate the new Wi-Fi network but they are clear about the future of Wayport's network. "Wayport will depart," said Bob Parker, a SeaTac spokesman. Wayport has operated the network at SeaTac for over four years. Its contract ended last year and since then it has been on a month-to-month contract with the airport. "Wayport owns those hotspots. We imagine they will come in and remove them," said John Faulkner, aviation business manager for SeaTac. He hopes that the Wayport network can be shut down at a time that will correspond with the completion of the new network to avoid a breech of service. The new network should be finished by early 2005, though an AT&T Wireless spokesman said he expects it to be completed before then. Wayport seemed unaware of the changes taking place at SeaTac. "We know they're talking to AT&T. We haven't heard anything official," said Dan Lowden, vice president of marketing for Wayport. "We look to continue to work with SeaTac in the way we are." Wayport could be in the running to operate the new network, though it's more likely that if Wayport is involved in the future network it would be through roaming deals with the company that ultimately will operate the network, Faulkner said. As part of the request for proposals to build the cellular and Wi-Fi networks, the airport gave participants the option of bidding on the Wi-Fi operations business as well. AT&T Wireless was one of the bidders that expressed interest in operating the network but the airport has not yet decided who will operate the network. "We want to do the business planning to figure out how to parcel out the network and structure the revenue model," Faulkner said. SeaTac wasn't unhappy with the service from Wayport but the decision to build a cellular network...

McDonald's Chooses Wayport for New Wi-Fi

McDonald's Chooses Wayport for New Wi-Fi 04/13/2004 03:05 AM
AP via Newsday Apr 13 2004 7:09AM GMT

Wayport Progress Report

Wayport Progress Report 01/09/2004 09:52 PM
Wayport has built Wi-Fi networks in over 800 locations, including 35,000 hotel rooms: The company has an additional 20,000 hotel rooms sold, soon to be built. In the last six months of 2003, Wayport logged a 113 percent increase in customer connections--defined as sessions of unlimited use in one location--over the same time frame a year earlier. Wayport's revenues for the fourth quarter 2003 grew 87 percent over the same quarter in 2002....

Wayport Plans to Serve McDonald's With
Wi-Fi

Wayport Plans to Serve McDonald's With
Wi-Fi 04/13/2004 01:58 AM
New York Times Apr 13 2004 5:55AM GMT

Wayport wins McDonald's hotspot gig

Wayport wins McDonald's hotspot gig 04/22/2004 06:33 AM
WLAN, burger and fries

WAYPORT POWERS McDONALD'S U.S. WI-FI
SERVICES

WAYPORT POWERS McDONALD'S U.S. WI-FI
SERVICES 04/19/2004 10:59 AM
Wi-Fi Technology Forum Apr 19 2004 3:44PM GMT

Free Times for Wayport Users

Free Times for Wayport Users 12/11/2003 04:47 PM
Wayport subscribers get full downloads of the electronic edition of The New York Times: This partnership with NewsStand provides Wayporters with the all-in-one edition, which is essentially the print version as an electronic document. Folks who subscribe to the electronic Times get a $25 Wayport prepaid card, which is probably three sessions....

McDonald's Taps Wayport for Wi-Fi
(NewsFactor)

McDonald's Taps Wayport for Wi-Fi
(NewsFactor) 04/13/2004 03:45 PM
NewsFactor - McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) has chosen Wayport as its preferred provider of high-speed wireless technology, now being rolled out in its fast-food restaurants across the country.

McDonald's selects Wayport to serve up
Wi-Fi

McDonald's selects Wayport to serve up
Wi-Fi 04/13/2004 12:50 PM
Wayport Inc. said McDonald's Corp. has selected the company as its exclusive nationwide public access Wi-Fi provider, which could lead to deployment of the world's largest Wi-Fi network. Dan Lowden, vice president of marketing at Austin-based Wayport, said his company expects to install Wi-Fi service in about 3,000 McDonald's restaurants this year and eventually plans to extend the service to "as many as possible" of the 13,000 McDonald's outlets in the U.S. during the course of the four-year contract.

Wayport Bags Golden Arches

Wayport Bags Golden Arches 04/13/2004 11:20 AM
Wayport will unwire 13,000 McDonald's: Wayport, one of the very earliest and longest-lasting Wi-Fi hotspot operators, has reportedly become the sole contractor to provide Wi-Fi service in 13,000 McDonald's. The company's CEO is quoted saying that they would add service in up to 3,000 stores this year. Wayport recently snagged The UPS Store contract as well, which involves thousands of stores in the U.S. The service will cost $2.95 for two hours, a substantial discount over most similar pay-as-you-go plans in the U.S. and Europe, significantly below the closest comparable large domestic network, T-Mobile HotSpot, which charges $6 per hour (one-hour minimum) or $10 per day. Cometa Networks and a Toshiba division were also in trials with McDonald's. Cometa recently lost its largest reseller partner, AT&T Wireless, for reasons that weren't disclosed, even as it signed up Barnes & Nobles's several hundred U.S. locations. Toshiba's product always seemed to be a strange play for a company with little Wi-Fi strategy; more of a turnkey-hotspot product than a network plan. None of the articles on the McDonald's deal mention the impact on McDonald's own operations. Back in July 2003, a McDonald's executive mentioned how important the full gestalt of Wi-Fi might be the company: providing them with the ability to have wireless point-of-sale components, offer reduced-price access to staff (thus reducing employee turnover), and letting district managers and contractors have inexpensive access....

Wayport fries competition for McDonald's
bid

Wayport fries competition for McDonald's
bid 04/13/2004 10:10 AM
The Wi-Fi company will be the sole provider of wireless Internet access at McDonald's restaurants in the U.S.

McDonald’s selects Wayport to serve up
Wi-Fi

McDonald’s selects Wayport to serve up
Wi-Fi 04/13/2004 04:52 PM
McDonald’s tapped Wayport to serve as its nationwide Wi-Fi service provider in a four-year contract covering its 13,000 U.S. outlets.

Wayport adds free NY Times downloads

Wayport adds free NY Times downloads 12/11/2003 03:42 PM

Wayport, McDonald's serve hot-spot deal

Wayport, McDonald's serve hot-spot deal 05/25/2004 10:18 AM
ZDNet May 25 2004 2:16PM GMT

Wayport, McDonald's cook up hot-spot
deal

Wayport, McDonald's cook up hot-spot
deal 05/24/2004 11:22 PM

McDonald's chooses Wayport for new Wi-Fi
restaurant service

McDonald's chooses Wayport for new Wi-Fi
restaurant service 04/13/2004 07:25 AM
Boston Globe Apr 13 2004 11:29AM GMT

McDonald's taps Wayport to add thousands
of Wi-Fi spots

McDonald's taps Wayport to add thousands
of Wi-Fi spots 04/13/2004 01:58 PM
USA Today Apr 13 2004 6:28PM GMT

Wayport To provide Wi-Fi Wireless
Internet Access For Handlery Hotels

Wayport To provide Wi-Fi Wireless
Internet Access For Handlery Hotels 07/14/2004 03:21 PM
Wi-Fi Technology Forum Jul 14 2004 6:57PM GMT

NCSoft Austin to Colocate with Equinix

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: ncsoft wayport