The tests are the latest indication that EarthLink is trying to capture a significantly larger portion of the U.S. telephone service market.

EarthLink expects that the makeover of its Internet telephony services will yield a half billion dollars in telephone revenue by 2009, and ultimately will serve 2 percent of all U.S. homes. Full Story...

San Elijo State Beach on the San Diego coast, is the first park in California to offer Wi-Fi access to visitors. The state plans to offer the service in 85 parks by June.

California is just one of several states that will offer park visitors the opportunity to access the Internet while they sit by the campfire.

Most of us haven't had to go for 25 days without service, spend more than 40 hours talking to innumerable techs, and escalate the case up to a corporate executives before someone finally decided to flip the right switch. That's the nightmare scenario one subscriber recently lived through when her DirecWay satellite service went south.

On day one, DirecWay made a satellite change that immediately had the effect of knocking out the subscriber's connection. "I was without both e-mail and Internet," the subscriber wrote. "Each technician in turn took me through his own various steps of "standard troubleshooting protocol"; I wasn't allowed to talk to the same person twice and DirecWay's support system doesn't allow them to call out to follow up with me even if they'd wanted to."

On Day 25 after 40 hours of tech support and many calls to corporate officials... "I called the Hughes vice president and, after some hesitation, he said he would have one of his 'senior guys' call me. In less than an hour, this technician determined the settings at their Network Operations Center had been set wrong. He had them reset everything for my account on a new frequency, and I instantly had the connection. He said he thought that 'a little more fact-finding' could have been done earlier." Read the compete horror story...

Tempe will become the first major metropolitan area in the United States to deploy citywide wireless Internet access.

The City Council has approved a contract with MobilePro Corp. and Strix Systems, and staff members are wrapping up negotiations this week. The companies will install hundreds of access points throughout Tempe in phases, starting this summer with south Tempe.

The "mesh network" will cover the entire city by late summer or early fall, allowing subscribers to fire up the Internet on laptops, cellphones and PDAs anywhere within Tempe's borders.

Monthly subscriptions are likely to be $20 for dial-up speed and $30 to $40 for high-speed wireless, although prices have not been set. Full Story...

America Online has temporarily dropped prices for its dial-up Internet service in an effort to stem the tide of customers switching to alternative services.

The Time Warner company has cut the price of its unlimited dial-up service to $19.95 a month from $23.90 for new U.S. subscribers who sign up within the next few weeks. AOL is similarly lowering the price of its 10-hours-a-month dial-up service to $9.95 a month from $14.95 for a limited time.

The special offer, which also includes 50 free days of service to new subscribers to the $19.95 plan, is aimed at broadband subscribers who want dial-up when they're away from home, an AOL representative said. The company has no plans for a permanent price change, the representative added.

Free LucidLink Wireless Client software now available from Interlink Networks simplifies wireless connectivity for home office and small business users. The software makes it easier to work wirelessly by eliminating technical terminology, intelligently detecting setup problems, and allowing the same client to be used on office networks and public hotspots as well as any business network utilizing the LucidLink Wireless Security program. The new LucidLink Wi-Fi client can be downloaded to any Windows XP or Windows 2000 PC from www.LucidLink.com.

Designed from the ground up for small business environments, the LucidLink client solves an array of problems that have faced wireless users in the setup process and in connecting to different wireless networks. Full Story...

Verizon Communications Inc. is turning off the free wireless Internet access it beams from New York City telephone booths for DSL subscribers who use laptops away from home or the office.

The company revealed the decision on Wednesday as its Verizon Wireless unit announced plans to accelerate the deployment of a fee-based cellular Internet service in the New York area.

The free service, which will be phased out over the next two months, was provided by installing short-range Wi-Fi transmitters in hundreds of telephone booths starting in May 2003.

Hughes Network Systems (HNS) today introduced the DW7000 family of next-generation broadband satellite routers. This high performance product line is designed to unlock the value and performance of satellite broadband by offering higher speeds on both up and downstream connections.

"The DW7000 family will take satellite broadband performance to the next level," said HNS Chairman and CEO Pradman Kaul. "With the industry's most powerful enterprise router and speeds up to six times faster than previous generations, its capabilities are truly unprecedented. As enterprises and consumers alike begin adopting the DW7000 family, they will not only see the better performance, but the true value of satellite broadband." Full Story...

The DIRECTV Group, Inc. and SkyTerra Communications, Inc. an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P., a New York-based private equity firm, today announced the completion of transactions that resulted in SkyTerra acquiring a 50 percent interest in a new entity, Hughes Network Systems LLC (HNS LLC), that in turn had acquired substantially all of the remaining assets of Hughes Network Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group.

HNS LLC is primarily focused on providing broadband satellite networks and services to enterprises via its core enterprise Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) business. Its other businesses include Consumer DIRECWAY, Mobile Satellite and Carrier Networks, as well as the portion of the Spaceway satellite platform that is under development and that will not be used in DIRECTV's direct-to-home satellite video broadcasting business. Approximately 1,360 HNS employees transferred to HNS LLC. In connection with the transactions, SkyT! erra will be responsible for day-to-day management of HNS LLC.

The DIRECTV Group received approximately $246 million in cash at closing, and 300,000 shares of SkyTerra common stock, and will retain a 50 percent interest in HNS LLC.

T-Mobile is adding detailed street-level coverage maps that’ll let you enter any address in the US and find out just how good (or bad) a signal you should expect to get.

Obviously they can’t guarantee that you’ll get four bars actually inside your home or office... there are too many variables to deal with once you’re indoors... but anyone thinking of switching to T-Mobile should check this first. Check coverage in your area.

Microsoft has a free video that you can watch online about what phishing is and how to protect your identity and personal information against it. See the video