802.11b news. EarthLink starts Boingo. A non-infrastructure wireless network. This is extremely smart. EarthLink provides the billing infrastructure (so they get the credit card info — which is huge), and lets partners set up wireless hotspot infrastructure. This is akin to the cable roll-up that John Malone did in the 70’s and 80’s with TCI. Brilliant and cool. It’s going to catch all the big Telcos by surprise given that this could spread to a national network in under 5 years. I expect AOL will follow soon (if they know what’s good for them).
As a small infrastructure provider, this is a way to generate a franchise for life. The race is on!!
[John Robb’s Radio Weblog]
I need to send this to Stefan