City improves its wireless access ranking.

Byline: L.A. Lorek

Jun. 7--In the future, anyone with a computer will be able to surf the Internet from anywhere in San Antonio, without a wire.

That's the vision of Terry Weakly, who runs WiFi-SA.com, a business building a wireless fidelity or WiFi Internet network.

"The wireless devices are going to be everything from child-oriented to entertainment-oriented," Weakly said. "WiFi is going to become as ubiquitous as getting an FM pocket radio and being able to listen to it on the bus." But San Antonio is not there yet. San Antonio has improved slightly in the rankings of the nation's most "unwired cities" to 41st from 49th a year ago, according to Intel's third annual survey released today.

San Antonio has got a way to go to catch up to Austin-San Marcos, which is the third most unwired area behind Seattle and San Francisco.

Nationwide, WiFi Internet access points known as hotspots are becoming more commonplace, said Bert Sperling of Sperling's Best Places, which conducted the survey for Intel.

The availability of WiFi is allowing more people with WiFi-enabled computers, personal digital assistants and phones to surf the Internet from parks, coffee shops, bookstores, airports and even sports stadiums, he said.

In 2001, only the most technologically advanced business people used WiFi to surf the Internet, said Ralph Bond, Intel's consumer education manager. But today, even teenagers and grandparents are using it.

In San Antonio, people can find WiFi hotspots at hotels, coffee shops and bookstores. Most require Internet surfers to pay to sign onto the WiFi network, but at the Weston Center downtown, people can surf the Internet for free.

Instead of free WiFi Internet access, Sperling found that the most unwired cities nationwide offered paid WiFi service. People find the paid WiFi service more reliable, he said.

More than 64,000 wireless hotspots exist in 99 countries, according to www.jiwire.com. Nationwide, WiFi hotspots have sprung up in public parks, airports, truck stops, laundromats, malls and auditoriums.

As the availability of WiFi expands, the demand for WiFi enabled laptop PCs has also grown, Bond said. Last year, wireless-enabled laptop PCs made up 65 percent of sales, but by 2007 all laptop computers will have WiFi access, according to research firm IDC.

Already, one in five adult computer users have connected to the Internet using public hotspots, according to a recent poll commissioned by Intel.

WiFi has changed the way people surf the Internet, but WiMax, a broadband WiFi technology, promises to provide wireless computing and connectivity to even more people, Bond said.

WiMax, short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, transmits wireless Internet access at DSL or T1 speeds up to 30 miles to large metro or rural areas. WiMax is expected to provide a cheap wireless alternative to other broadband technologies, Bond said.

WiMax is being tested in Austin, Abilene and other cities, Bond said. For information, visit www.wimaxforum.org.

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