[CWN-Summit] Students tout WiFi co-ops as alternative to municipal WiFi

ben westbywest at riseup.net
Thu Feb 7 20:36:50 CST 2008


Hi David,

A friend of mine who is a coffeeshop owner in St. Louis encountered this 
very scheme when he approached SBC about setting up free wifi in his 
store a couple years ago.  Apparently, the SBC rep explained to him that 
he had no choice but to place the encrypted 2wire AP on his DSL 
connection since his store was considered a public space (i.e. not 
residential).  The coffeeshop owner had no interest in letting SBC 
demand paid subscriptions over a broadband service that he was already 
paying for, and simply opted for no DSL at all.

SBC's brain-damaged business model likely resulted in this scheme's 
stillbirth, along with not a small number of lost customers, I gather.

David Young wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 07, 2008 at 07:04:15PM -0600, ben wrote:
> 
> Years ago, SBC (now AT&T) would sell you your DSL with one of those
> frightening 400mW 2Wire-brand access points.  As I recall, WEP was
> activated by default.  I thought SBC was going to use those APs to
> provide a paid WiFi roaming service.  They never did.  I don't know if
> the idea hadn't actually occurred to them, or if they weren't able to
> sell enough APs to get the coverage they desired.
> 
> Dave
> 


-- 
Ben West
westbywest at riseup.net
http://savetheinternet.org


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