The Gallatin Valley Mall's food court will have free Wi-Fi beginning Nov. 25, courtesy of Little Apple Technologies of Manhattan.

The Internet solutions provider will maintain a kiosk by the food court so the company can sell Little Apple goods -- including high-speed Internet access, computer repair services and gadgets such as iPod shuffles -- and assist Wi-Fi users.

"We are getting more and more people coming to us in person," said managing sales associate Julie Clay. "It's nice to have that face-to-face contact with clientele." Full Story...

MCI, Inc.'s SkyTel unit introduced UnpluggedCity(SM) wireless
broadband services for businesses, residents and visitors in Lexington,
Kentucky, as part of a SkyTel pilot program to test Wi-Fi service in various
markets. Under a cooperative agreement with the city, SkyTel has designed and
built a Wi-Fi "hot zone" that it will own and manage to immediately deliver
this innovative new service in Lexington's downtown area.

UnpluggedCity offerings, available by visiting http://www.unpluggedcity.com or by calling 1-800-815-9544, include pay-as-you-go service to longer term contracts for businesses and residents. Full Story...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Search giant Google Inc. took a big step Tuesday night toward becoming an Internet service provider.

The Mountain View city council on Tuesday unanimously ratified a five-year property lease that Google needs to begin building a wireless network in the city.

Mountain View won't have to spend any money; rather, Google promises to fund all the construction and run the operation. And Google plans to give away access to anyone with the right gear, and a free Google account. As a bonus, city employees, including emergency service workers, will get a secured connection of their own, again at no cost to the city.

Google has even promised to add wireless access to the Google Mobile, a mobile library the city expects to soon take possession. In addition, the city gets an option to buy the network in the future. Full Story...

Battle lines are now being drawn over the next-generation WLAN standard, IEEE 802.11n, which promises speeds of 100Mbps and higher, as well as increased range.

Unfortunately, the real losers in the skirmish could be enterprise customers buying nonstandard implementations of 802.11n under the mistaken belief that they will be interoperable with other products. Full Story...

The first generation of hotspot locators looked like little fobs that you could clip onto a key ring. When you pushed a button, the device would scan for an 802.11b/g signal, and the device's LEDs would indicate the presence and strength of a wireless network. Unfortunately, with the limited number of LEDs (usually just four), all you could really surmise was whether there was a network and then get a very general sense of its signal strength.

The new generation of finders display the names of wireless networks, their signal strength, whether they were open or secure, and the operating channel. Full Story...
Get RV accessories from JC Whitney

Bozeman commonly makes top 10 lists, especially the ones in ski magazines that rave about the area's three premium resorts.

A little more shocking, at least to those in the Silicon Valley, is Bozeman's ranking among mid-size towns regarding free wireless Internet.

We're No. 1, according to metrofreefi.com.

"It's a little surprising," said Denis Hiller, communications director at the company. "It tells me that there's a real strong, grassroots wireless movement there that's benefiting both businesses and the local community." Full Story...

SkyTerra Communications, Inc. an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P., a New York-based private equity firm, announced today that it has executed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50 percent of Hughes Network Systems, not already owned from The DIRECTV Group, Inc. The transaction is expected to close in early first quarter 2006. Full Story...

Under a multi-year agreement, Hughes Network Systems has contracted for additional transponders aboard the AMC-9 satellite to serve its rapidly growing base of DIRECWAY(R) broadband satellite customers throughout North America.

Hughes is already using the AMC-3 and AMC-4 satellites to deliver a broad range of IP-based private network solutions and high-speed Internet services. Full Story...