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Meta is winding down its low-cost WiFi program for developing countries
Meta is ending its Express Wi-Fi program designed to provide low-cost internet in developing countries through partnerships with local communities.
Orion WiFi will connect you to public WiFi when cell coverage is limited
Orion WiFi will seamlessly connect cellular customers to public WiFi when cell coverage is limited.
Google is ending its Station free public WiFi program
After almost four years of providing free internet access to people in developing countries, Google plans to shut down its Station program. The initiative saw the search giant offer free public WiFi at 400 railway stations in India and more than 5,000 other places around the world, including in Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. News of the shutdown started to filter out last week, but Google officially confirmed the news on Monday.
Microsoft technology gives Seattle 5,000 times faster public WiFi
Techie culture-vultures aren't likely to encounter Vine upload fails anymore at Seattle's home to arts, culture and the Space Needle thanks to Microsoft. The city's biggest patron has installed a new WiFi service at the Seattle Center that uses new technology to blow away the previous system's speed and capacity. The installation is a pilot program for Microsoft Research's white space tech that harnesses long-range, wall-penetrating TV signals. Along with quadruple the access points, the tech gives the Seattle Center public WiFi speeds up to 5,000 times faster, letting you Skype, Vine and Meerkat to your heart's content.
Leeds turning telephone boxes into free WiFi kiosks, crowdsource your memories for posterity
Public WiFi projects don't normally involve antique restoration and historical crowd sourcing, but that's exactly what's going on in Leeds. Local telecoms company aql is renovating Giles Gilbert Scott's iconic red telephone boxes in the area, adding solar panels, networking equipment and giving them a blue paint-job. While the boxes will be locked to keep the wireless gear secure, the company has added touch screens to the outside, letting locals make emergency calls and leave messages that share their memories about the area -- a better fate for the hardware than inspiring this portable monstrosity.
Google Offers, Boingo add more locations for free and discounted public WiFi
Love venting your E-Train frustrations with Boingo and Google Offers' free WiFi? While the Manhattan program ends on September 7th, the partnership has swelled its coverage to include a further 24 locations across the nation. From today, eight malls will offer WiFi in cities like LA, SF and Seattle -- while Airport hoppers will be able to get a 50 percent discount on 24-hour access at 16 airports including JFK, O'Hare and Midway, if you sign up with Mountain View's offers service. If you're at nearing the end of your data cap and need some free internet stat, head on past the break to find out more.
NYC launches free public WiFi trial, links it to skeevy payphones
Free public WiFi may be the sort of thing you automatically associate with Starbucks, but starting today, you'll be able to add NYC payphones to that short list. The city's pilot program, just officially launched, aims to spread gratis wireless service to residents of the five boroughs and the ceaseless crush of tourists they love to hate. Currently, only ten kiosk locations are live across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan -- a planned rollout to Staten Island and the Bronx is underway -- and, for any curious passersby, can be easily located by their very conspicuous signage (as seen above). So, if you're out and about the Big Apple and that 4G LTE connection's just not cutting the mustard, why not give King Mayor Bloomberg's city WiFi a try? Hit up the source below for the hotspot specifics.
Karma rewards WiMAX subscribers for sharing their 4G
Normally, we associate Karma with religion, or if we're honest, luxury hybrid sedans. A company by the same name would rather you make that connection with WiMAX Internet service. Much like a 4G version of FON, subscribers to the Clearwire-rooted network are required to share their Internet link-ups with the public as a WiFi hotspot. As the name suggests, though, sharing the connection ideally pays back dividends through free access: for every guest who signs in on Facebook to get 100MB of free data through the hotspot, another 100MB goes towards the hotspot owner. If all goes well, the Karma user creates a virtuous circle (pun entirely intended) and pays little if anything for Internet access; while the WiMAX hotspot costs $69, the $14 per gigabyte rate only kicks in if the credit runs out. Trial runs are starting in New York City and might only hit 500 hotspots by the end of 2012, but the hope is to upturn the wider industry and make sure there's never a shortage of public WiFi.
