03.29.07

Earthlink offers Free WiFi to N800 users…

Posted in Internet, Services at 11:02 pm by Jonathan Greene

…though there’s a catch.

While the Feather service is truly free, it only applies if you live or are visiting a city in which Earthlink offers service and lasts through the end of this year. As you can see from the map below, the cities with coverage today are: Anaheim CA, Corpus Christi TX, Milipitas CA, New Orleans, LA and Philadelphia, PA.

I personally find the map to be a bit misleading as Earthlink has chosen to shade an entire state even if they have a single city covered… Typically cities set up their own rules for what’s free vs. pay (or even public) on MuniWireless networks so it’s possible it will continue to be free in some markets – though as someone living in a place without such a network, I can’t offer any firsthand experience. Please let me know if you have success with this or other muni-networks.

In order to use this service, you’ll need to set-up a free account and download a small piece of software which enables your connection. I found the link in the Tableteer homepage – on the Tablet. (I had actually seen it in my applications manager earlier today, but could not think of a reason why I’d want to install an earthlink app…) The application installs easily from the Feather site though I honestly can’t tell you more about it or the service since there’s no access point on the feather network in Westchester, NY!

Regardless this is still cool as the tablet makes a great MuniWireless communicator – you’ve got web, email, presence (IM) VOIP and of course now streaming music! My parting thought on this is that I’d really like to see Nokia do more deals!! T-Mobile (my preference given Starbucks coverage), Boingo, and Wayport all offer much more coverage and would open the possibilities for WiFi Roaming and make this even more compelling.

Quick update… about 2 minutes after I posted this Twitter informed me that the PSP now includes Free WiFi with T-Mobile.

Technorati Tags: Boingo, Earthlink, Featherwifi, Maemo, MuniWireless, N-Series, N800, Nokia, T-Mobile, Wayport, WiFi

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