ot-Marriott books into Wi-Fi world
Copyright 2002 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
Toronto Star...12/20/2002
Lexis Nexis
By Tyler Hamilton
In what's being called the biggest deployment of its kind, Marriott International Inc. plans to provide high-speed wireless Internet access throughout 400 hotels in Europe and North America, including three locations in Toronto.
The global lodging company, which manages about 2,500 hotels in 64 countries, said the wireless service will complement "wired" high-speed Internet service that Marriott-branded hotels currently provide in select rooms and meeting places.
"We do get requests for it from our guests," said Lou Paladeau, vice-president of technology business development at Marriott. "Our plan is to focus on those hotels that are currently wired to have wireless capability by mid-second quarter of next year at the latest."
At least four Marriott hotels in Canada offer high-speed Internet access in their guest rooms, a service that's supplied through Salt Lake City-based broadband provider STSN Inc.
These hotels include the Toronto Airport Marriott, Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre, Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel, and Ottawa Marriott.
Marriott International has a minority stake in privately held STSN, which will also oversee deployment of the service.
The technology will be based on the Wi-Fi or 802.11b wireless standard, making it possible for guests to access the Internet from any location on Marriott hotel property by simply opening a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop. Software in the laptop will automatically detect the network within a 200-metre radius.
Paladeau said pricing has not yet been determined, but the service will likely be offered on a pay-per-use basis or bundled along with in-room high-speed service. He said the company has spent considerable time making sure security -- a common criticism of Wi-Fi technology -- will be strong.
"In the very long term you'll see (this technology) become much more of an expectation," he said. "In the short term, it will remain for us a compelling competitive advantage, because nobody else is able to execute it to the scale and speed that we can."
Last week, Bell Canada announced a three-month project that would give the public free wireless access at a number of Wi-Fi "hotspots" located in Ontario and Quebec, including Toronto's Union Station. Bell is using its payphone infrastructure to link together various hotspots within its network.
Telus Corp. recently invested $ 6 million in Toronto-based Wi-Fi provider Spotnik Mobile, which says it will announce a number of public Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Canada early next year.
Carriers have taken a keen interest in Wi-Fi technology as a complement to their mobile phone networks, which can't provide the high speeds that mobile Internet users increasingly demand. The goal is to establish the largest number of hotspot locations in the race to establish more complete national networks for consumers.
Wi-Fi technology is expected to be a standard feature in about 90 percent of laptops in 2004.
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