MuniWireless

The city council of Málaga, Spain wants to provide Wi-Fi everywhere in the city. They are working on a map of Wi-Fi hotspots in the city, which will include information about whether they are free of charge or paid. Although several companies such as JiWire and WeFi provide maps with Wi-Fi locations, they are not comprehensive. Neither are they easy to update. This is the challenge that Málaga is facing after they’ve created the map.

In addition, the city will find…

The EU has conducted a survey of 27,000 households in 27 countries and the results are astounding: 24 percent of EU households have given up fixed telephone lines in favor of mobile phones. In the new Member states, that number is even higher: 39 percent. The landline infrastructure in many eastern European countries is poor so residents have simply moved to the mobile phone. Here’s another interesting statistic: 22 percent use their computer to make calls over the Internet (long live…

A study carried out for the European Commission reveals that Europeans are shocked by the extremely high charges they incur when they use their mobile phones and laptops for data access outside their home countries. They are also unhappy about the the lack of transparency related to the pricing by volume of data (megabytes) used.

Indeed, lack of transparency is a serious problem: most people don’t read the fine print on their mobile phone contracts. When the operators say they are selling you…

I’ve written a lot about Blyk, a mobile virtual network operator based in the UK, that has a novel business model: giving away free mobile phone service in exchange for users’ viewing MMS and SMS ads. While this “free service in exchange for ads” model has not worked well in the citywide Wi-Fi space and has never been tried in the cellular industry, Blyk claims they are doing very well. The reason: they target 16-24 year olds. Unless you fall…

Wireless Oakland has suspended operations after failing to attract new investors. The network is stuck in phase one and has been unable to expand because of a lack of funds. The total cost of building out the network is estimated at $70 million. MichTel Communications, the service provider, cannot go on with the project.

While projects such as Wireless Oakland stumble, others such as Craven County (North Carolina), Racine County (Wisconsin) and Cambria County (Pennsylvania) are going forward with their plans.…