Intel's Otellini: 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan. Some mistake, surely

A REPORT IN the Washington Post, filed by AP, quotes Intel president Paul Otellini as claiming there are 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan alone.

Otellini is in India and is telling the nation of over one billion people that they'd better get wireless LANNed up, and quick.

There's nothing like 10,000 wi-fi hotspots in Manhattan, however, if Otellini was quoted correctly.

A quick look at Intel's own "mobile technology hotspot finder" shows that there's something like 100 and not all of these are in Manhattan. Many are in Hiltons, in internet cafes or in Starbuck so called "coffee bars".

Otellini is also quoted as saying that there are plenty of wireless zones and hotspots in airports, but that isn't true either.

As our old mucker Tony Smith and myself discovered when we were in a business lounge at Kennedy recently, and facing a HUGE Centrino poster.

The really frustrating thing about all of this is that the silicon to set up wi-fi hotspots is inexpensive, but it's a much harder job to persuade organisations to provide this service, perhaps especially here in the UK.

Intel does not now produce wireless LAN cards, but its "Centrino" notebook technology currently supports 802.11b wi-fi. µ

L'INQ
Washington Post