Digital data is growing non-stop. AT&T is shuttling their mobile data from their telecom networks to WiFi in an attempt to keep up in a few key high traffic area. To quote FierceWireless,

AT&T uses 24,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to supplement macro cellular coverage in a handful of locations in key markets. The areas, which AT&T calls Wi-Fi hotzones, include Austin’s Sixth Street, Chicago’s Wrigleyville, downtown Charlotte, N.C., New York’s Times Square and San Francisco’s Embarcadero district.

Several carriers and in-flight WiFi companies are promoting their “Internet in a plane” service. Even Google is getting onboard (pun intended) by sponsoring free WiFi over the holiday travel season within airports and has inked a deal with Virgin American to provide free WiFi on their flights. Of course, Google has deep pockets and makes money when people use the Internet. The deal has the added benefit that they get to advertise with new Chrome browser. But besides Google, can anyone really afford in-flight WiFi?

As reported by Portolio.com, it costs between $100K to $250K to equip just one plane with the equipment needed for in-flight WiFi. To equip an entire airline of hundreds of planes requires more upfront cash than these in-flight WiFi startup companies have and can possibly raise. (Brother, can you spare a quarter billion?)

The biggest problem is that users have been conditioned to expect the Internet for free. (I often joke that “Internet” is Latin for free.) They don’t even want to pay $1 for this service. And even if they would pay $10 per session, a huge sum for most bargain travelers, it would require 10k to 25k customers on a single plane just to pay for the equipment costs for that plane. This does not even include the cost of maintaining the system over time.

It will require years just to get the upfront costs back. How can these in-flight WiFi companies really afford this? But more importantly, is this just too soon for this service? Should we wait for equipment costs to come down more as users become more connected? I am sure that there are other ways to invest this quarter billion that can get a higher and faster return for their investors and a better social return for the world.

Just months after Eathlink could not give away its WiFi network, its already built and operating WiFi network, in the heart of Philadelphia, Cablevision is planning to create its own in New York. Meanwhie, Clearwire and other are looking to roll out their own WiMAX next work across the country.

Once again, the business case for this NY network just is not clear. According to the article, Kevin Curran, Cablevision’s senior vice president of wireless product development sees the network as another cool features for keeping customers and getting new ones. They are planning to spend $300 million to create this network. That seems like a lot just for what is described an incremental add-on service.

Nullriver came out with a cute iPhone app that was banished from the iPhone App store as soon as Apple realized what it did. Their app lets a 3G iPhone user access the Internet through the 3G connection of the iPhone and share this connection through the iPhone WiFi connection to his laptop. This tethering app sold for $10.

This is not a new application. There are lots of hardware cards that allow users to do this already. The iPhone version is definitely new, but it should not have been considered against the rules. After all, the user is still paying for access to the Internet. It is just that the Internet connection is being used by another device that the user owns.

The latest report is that the app is back up and ready for more downloads. I just hope that AT&T has improved their 3G network enough to handle the increase in traffic.

Attended my first meeting of Mobile Monday (http://www.mobilemonday.us/) yesterday.  It was an unusual meeting because it was demo night.  There were about 6 different presentations.  Some presentation had the gods of demos smiling down peacefully while others had to survive the loss of the WiFi connection.  It was not pretty.

Two points came to mind while I was watching these demos.  The first was that most of the demos and two in particular tried to create simple ways to search the net using a mobile phone.  Unfortunately, it may be a while before any winners in this area appear.  The second point had less to do with the particular demo as opposed to the review of the current technology.  One person showed an application that he had created for linux-based WiFi phones.  I had not realized that the Open source programming for cell phones had advanced so far so fast.  His description of calling his parents in India for free using his WiFi phone just showed what a tight position the cell phone companies are going to be in.  He said that his parents preferred that he phoned using his WiFi phone as opposed to his cell phone because it sounded better.  The WiFi phone sends voice as 64kbs streams vs. the 32kbs stream of the cell phone.  Once again, I can’t figure out why anyone would pay billions for a 3G license.

One of the most interesting/scary demos was for Loopt (https://loopt.com/loopt/sess/index.aspx).  It lets you located your friends and lets you know when they are within a certain distance.  I realize that his is a great technology for tracking people and places.  I also realize that this type of technology is exactly the thing that will make Geogad Mobile Tours even easier to use.  However, it is a little creepy to see the screen of the demo cell phone map your friends, even down to saying that they are currently in a McDonalds that is 7.12 miles away from you.

On the way out, I bumped into a person who worked for NTT Japan.  Since Japan has had this “find friends” and “broadcast my position to my friends” technology for ages, I asked him if it has taken off in Japan yet.  He confirmed what I have always heard, that people don’t use this technology because they don’t what others to be able to track them.

I can understand this idea.  In fact, I asked the guy from Loopt a question along these lines during his presentation.  He said that they have considered many privacy issues and have included the ability to turn off your “broadcast my position” functionality by using the on-phone application, a SMS, or by dialing a phone number.  I asked if they had come up with any excuses for their customers to use when they shut off their broadcast position function and their girlfriends were no longer able to track them.

Technorati tags: Mobile Monday, Loopt, Linux phone, WiFi, mobile internet