Intel, T-Mobile, Others Sponsor Event to Promote Wireless Internet Access.

By Beatrice E. Garcia, The Miami Herald Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 25--Michael McCabe, a 33-year-old freelance fashion photographer, stops by the Starbucks on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, sips coffee and checks his e-mail using a laptop by tapping into the wireless Internet access point at this shop. It's a way to stay connected when he is away from his home office in Plantation when he's doing a shoot.

Like McCabe, many business users, consumers and students are checking out what wireless Internet access is all about.

Hot spots, or wireless Internet access points, are popping up everywhere from Miracle Mile in Coral Gables and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to RV parks and KOA campgrounds.

Even the regulators are embracing WiFi, or wireless fidelity. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission set up wireless access in the public areas of its Washington, D.C., headquarters.

IDC, Framingham, Mass.-based research firm, reports there are about 20,000 hot spots today and that number is likely to go up sixfold by 2005.

Today, a group of companies, including Intel, T-Mobile, Boingo, Cometa Networks, IBM, Toshiba, Verizon and Warner Bros., are sponsoring Unwired Day, an event geared to get consumers to try wireless Internet access -- for free -- at hundreds of locations around the country.

In South Florida, there are a variety of free hot spots today, including some in Aventura, Hollywood, Boca Raton, Hialeah and Miami Beach.

A recent survey found 1 out of 10 business travelers have tried a WiFi hotspot, but 71 percent see them as vital to future business competitiveness. Seventy percent said their next laptop purchase would be one that's WiFi-enabled.

The survey, conducted by the Brain Group for Intel, interviewed 437 business travelers in the United States, Europe, the Far East, and Latin America.

The survey concludes that by 2010, the common refrain will be: "Remember when we had to plug in to go online?"

Ralph Bond, Intel's consumer education manager, understands the reason for the popularity. A heavy business traveler, warrior par excellence, Bond is happy to flip open his laptop in an airport lounge with wireless access and snatch a few minutes answering e-mails or working on a report. That's leaves more time to spend with his family when he gets to his home in Oregon.

Sarah Kim, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston, noted that universities and schools have been ahead of businesses in adopting WiFi and setting up wireless Internet access points on their campuses.

At home, teens are the drivers of wireless adoption, she said, because setting up a wireless local area network allows one broadband connection to be shared by several family members.

However, there are certain precautions computers users should remember when using a wireless network, especially in a public location.

"After all, you wouldn't go up to pay phone in a crowded airport and shout out the PIN number for your checking account," Bond said.

One basic precaution is to use personal firewall software. "In simplest terms, it makes your laptop look invisible to others on the Internet," explained Bond.

Many companies allow employees to tap into their corporate computers using virtual private networks. The VPN encrypts data going back and forward between laptops in the field and the network back at the office.

Bond said it's also a good idea to check what security features each wireless Internet service provider is using. Many public hot spots have deliberately turned off all security features just to make it easier for users to sign on.

"Take precautions," he added. "It's better to be safe than sorry.

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(c) 2003, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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