HP Tells Plan for Public Wireless LANs

NEW YORK--Hewlett-Packard will provide hotels, airports, and other venues with wireless Internet access for either their own employees or the general public, the company is announcing on the eve of the TECHXNY show here. HP also unveiled new versions of its Evo, Presario, and Pavilion notebooks, as well as a new IPaq Pocket PC and HP Jornada handheld.

HP will walk interested organizations through the entire wireless LAN installation process, from designing the WLAN, installing the networking equipment, setting up subscription services through its partners, and servicing the network, said Michael Flanagan, manager of HP's worldwide wireless LAN solutions and programs.

Companies partnering with HP include Cisco Systems, IPass, Aptilo Networks, and Boingo Wireless. HP will recommend to customers network access points from Cisco, hardware from HP, and software from Aptillo, but those customers will be free to choose their own providers based on their business needs, and HP will install that equipment, Flanagan said. The networks will use the 802.11b WLAN standard, also known as Wi-Fi.

Customer Options

HP customers that operate public facilities such as airports will be able to opt for single-purpose or dual-purpose networks--that is, either providing a network just for the public, or also allowing their own employees to exchange data over the same network. A dual-purpose network provides cost savings for enterprises, because they would have to maintain only one network for both internal and public data transmissions, Flanagan said.

No service contract will be required as part of the installation, Flanagan added. Customers can either manage the network in-house, or allow HP to manage their networks, he said, recommending a two- or three-year contract for those who choose HP's services.

Customers who sign up for HP's WLAN program can receive subscription services from either Boingo or IPass; the services offer users around the world a network of WLAN "hot spots," or connection zones. Customers can choose to be billed (by the service provider) by the hour, day, week, or other time increments, passing along costs to their public users.

Pricing for larger installations will depend on the size of the network, the length of the consulting engagement, and whether the customer manages the network, said Flanagan. Customers looking for smaller networks will have to work out pricing with channel vendors based on the number of access points and other hardware they require, he said.

HP is testing networks at several locations in North America, Flanagan said, without naming specific venues. Compaq's United Kingdom office last month announced a partnership with Aptilo and Kubi Wireless to set up "hot spots," or WLANs in Spain, which has so far connected ten hotels, he said. Aptilo puts together combinations of hardware and software that enable WLAN service providers to manage their networks through a Web-based management tool and statistics-gathering applications.

Notebooks, PDAs Shown

Along with its wireless services, HP unveiled several new notebook computers for both businesses and consumers, as well as three new handhelds.

The Evo Notebook N410c, N610c and N1000 series are designed for mobile workers using wireless networks. They include as a standard feature the Multiport module, a removable card that accesses wireless networks on both the 802.11b and Bluetooth standards.

The N410c uses Intel's 1.2-GHz Pentium III-M processor, while the N610c runs on Intel's Mobile Pentium 4 Processor-M at speeds of up to 2 GHz. Intel unveiled the 2-GHz Mobile P4 this week.

Users of the N1000 series can choose between one model designed for corporate users and one for small and midsize businesses, featuring either Pentium 4 or Mobile Celeron processors from Intel. Prices for the N410c and N610c start at $2149, and the N1000 series starts at $1699.

Consumer notebooks were also released by HP, which added models to its Compaq Presario and HP Pavilion lines. The two new Compaq lines, the 900 series and the 1500 series, feature the Multiport WLAN technology, and an IEEE 1394 port for connecting peripherals such as digital camcorders to the notebook. The 900 series comes with Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon XP processor at speeds of up to 1.47 GHz, and starts at $1599. The 1500 series uses Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors, depending on the configuration, and starts at $1089.

Two new lines from the HP Pavilion brand round out the notebook announcements. The HP Pavilion zt1200 series uses Intel processors and a graphics controller from ATI. Bluetooth and 802.11b WLAN capabilities are optional, embedded features, as opposed to the Multiport, which is standard and removable on the Presario machines. The zt1200 line starts at $1799. The final Pavilion, the ze5100, also features optional WLAN technology, and adds an Intel Pentium 4 processor running at up to 2.2 GHz and a DVD/CD+RW drive for DVD watching and CD burning. It starts at $1595.

The IPaq Pocket PC H3950 and the Pocket PC H3970 run Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system on a 400-MHz Intel XScale PXA250 processor. A new color liquid crystal display screen allows for more advanced graphics, and the IPAQ's Expansion Pack feature enables users to plug in networking cards, additional batteries, and/or Bluetooth short-range wireless networking cards. The H3950 will start at $649; the H3970, at $749.

HP's Jornada handheld was also updated at the show, with the HP Jornada 728 making its debut. HP increased the available memory on the handheld to 64 megabytes, and kept the 206-MHz Intel SA1110 processor from the previous version. The Jornada 728 is priced starting at $999.