Now we need hybrid BB's...


MCI's SkyTel Unplugs Lexington, Kentucky, With New WiFi Service

MCI's SkyTel unit today introduced UnpluggedCity™, a wireless broadband service for businesses, residents, and visitors in Lexington, Kentucky, and part of a SkyTel pilot program to test WiFi service in various markets. Under a cooperative agreement with the city, SkyTel has designed and built a Wi-Fi "hot zone" that it will own and manage to immediately deliver the new service in Lexington's downtown area.

According to today's press release, SkyTel offers:

• UnpluggedCity: A service encompassing pay-as-you-go service as well as longer term contracts for businesses and residents. Available from the website or by calling (800) 815-9544.
• UnpluggedCity Enterprise: Offering monthly rates at $575 (plus $999 installation) to meet the larger bandwidth demands of businesses as an alternative or backup to T1 service, with speeds of up to 6 Mbps.
• UnpluggedCity Residential Wireless Broadband: Designed to provide Internet access speeds of up to 3 Mbps with the purchase of a "modem" to relay WiFi signals into homes. Base price is $24.99 per month.
• UnpluggedCity Small Business Wireless Broadband: The same service as UnpluggedCity Residential, but designed for small business and with a monthly rate of $69.99. SkyTel is offering attractive discounts on both these services and modems for a limited time.
• Unplugged Traveler: Instant broadband access to visitors with WiFi-enabled laptops or handhelds from locations within the UnpluggedCity network for $5.99 an hour, $9.99 a day, and $24.99 a month.

Lexington is the first market where SkyTel is rolling out commercial WiFi service.

Wow... that's rich considering the amount of free municipal wifi hotspots going up around north america.

I don't think this is gonna be a goldmine for SkyTel...

cd.

Free municipal wifi? You have a link? I don't like teathering my laptop and EDGE is like ISDN which is better but not ultimate so I was comparing WiFi as an alternative.

Also, with free wifi sounds like we won't need a home connection???

Free muni WiFi projects don't exist in all cities, and are taxpayer funded (Although it can get rather cheap on a per-capita basis because of the economics of WiFi). And the muni's may be slow with substandard backbone connections - at least in a couple years from now. This may not be the case now, but there's a risk...

So in cities with no 'blanket free wifi' (WiFi signal that covers hundreds of city blocks), paid WiFi for home use may work. It really depends on reception (WiFi signal that's as pervasive as GSM/GPRS would be lovely) and bandwidth (getting your money's worth).

So the profitability/economics of this is probably conditional... It could work, just not in every city.