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Once the realm of computer specialists, high-speed wireless Internet access is becoming more popular in Anchorage and in scores of rural communities throughout the state.
Executives with the largest hotel in Alaska recently announced the completion of a new system that allows guests to get online wirelessly.
Karen Boshell, Director of Sales for the Anchorage Hilton Hotel, said the service is available in the Hilton's lobby, restaurants and conference rooms.
The service is fully compatible with what are known as 802.11 a/b mobile devices. In plain English that means wireless capable laptops, tablet PCs, and other personal digital devices that operate on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux systems.
The service, geared to the hotel's business traveling clientele, costs $2.95 for the first fifteen minutes and twenty-five cents for each additional minute.
Boshell said clients have been "very happy" with the service, which has multiple layers of security to keep any antenna-toting hackers at bay.
"It's a secure line, there are firewalls," she said.
A handful of businesses in Anchorage offer packages that let you get away from all those cables when connecting to the Internet.
"All you've got to do is plug your computer into the back of our unit," said Horst Poepperl, owner of Borealis Broadband, Inc. in Anchorage.
He said his specialty is designing systems for small and large businesses in Anchorage and Eagle River.
The company provides the necessary equipment and sells bandwidth in incremental amounts. For example, standard business packages begin at $137.50 per month for 256 kilobytes per second connection speed.
The connections are shared among customers and bandwidth is allotted per individual agreement. If you want to really scream at top wireless speed, on a dedicated signal, you can get a connection at 2048 kilobytes per second for $3733.33 per month.
Poepperl said business is "slow and steady."
"We don't advertise a whole lot, we've got a few commercials but it's primarily word of mouth," he said.
Core Communications, Inc. president Stephen Stevens said his company focuses on top-grade engineering and product support for business wireless applications.
Begun in Anchorage 10 years ago as a small computer support service, the company has evolved into a premier Internet technology service provider with offices in Alaska, Arizona and Nevada.
One of the company's newest products is the Vocera Wireless Communications system. The system is designed for mobile personnel in hospitals, retail operations and other indoor environments.
It allows hands-free, voice-activated communications to let workers instantly communicate using simple voice commands.
Stevens said the pricing for network services is based on the number of clients who will be hooked up.
Curtis Clifton is a corporate communications specialist with GCI in Anchorage. He said the company has the capability to provide customers with wireless service, but is not actively marketing the technology in Anchorage.
"We don't offer it on a wide scale because our broadband is primarily in Anchorage (through) cable modems," he said.
Bush communities, on the other hand, can make efficient use of wireless systems.
Clifton said GCI made a commitment two years ago to fund a $15 million project designed to bring Internet access to approximately 175 communities that were lacking service. He said many of those towns and villages are now utilizing wireless Web connections through local area networks, or LANs.
"By the end of next year we'll have 152 communities across the state with high speed Internet which, when we're done, will basically be 99.5 percent of the Alaska population," he said.
One far-flung example Clifton mentioned is False Pass in the Aleutian Islands.
"We set up a transmitting unit and little antennas on the side of everybody's home," he said. "We've actually got 100 percent of the businesses ... they just love the idea."
Nome residents can hook up to wireless service from Nook Net. Owner Ramon Gandia said he has been offering dial-up Internet service since 1997 and launched the wireless signal in January of last year.
"I can drive down Front street and surf the Web. But I would recommend a dedicated driver," Gandia said.
"It's competitive with GCI," he said. Nook Net's economy package is $47 per month and limits customers to 1,999 gigabytes of data transfer per month. He said that is plenty for most users, but he also offers a standard package for $67 per month that allows 2,999 gigabytes of data transfer per month.
He said the company will begin high-speed wireless service in Unalakleet this summer.
Richard Wilson is Director of Development at Ted Stevens International Airport. He said it may be a while before the terminals in Anchorage go wireless.
"We're going to be looking at options for the traveling public," he said. "Where it has been tried it has had mixed reviews. Some airports that have millions and millions of people passing through have had better experiences, financially," with offering wireless bandwith to travelers, he said.
The new addition to the University of Alaska Consortium Library has been designed with the wireless Web in mind. Library Dean Stephen Rollins said the university is working on a system of technological standards that will give students and educators full wireless access at the Anchorage campus.
"We kind of scaled back the number of wall connections, because we think wireless is going to be part of our immediate future," he said.
And if there is a true pioneer of the wireless wilderness it has to be Red Boucher. Consultant, businessman, former Alaska Lieutenant Governor and computer fanatic, Boucher owns Alaska Wireless Inc.
Working with village elders and contacts at the MIT Media Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., Boucher developed what he calls a "village area network" at Toksook Bay in western Alaska.
That was in the mid 1990's. Since then his company has installed other wireless systems in Kotzebue and Bethel. Not to mention his home.
"It's simply transmitting digital data over a radio wave," he said. His home system has a receiving range of about 300 feet. "I let the neighbors use it," he said.
He speaks of the technology with almost religious zeal.
"We're constantly exploring what's over the horizon, what's not on the public radar yet," he said. "And there's some stuff coming down that's absolutely mindblowing, especially in the field of medicine."
He said his company is assisting with beta testing a tiny nanocomputer designed to perform intestinal scanning. "It's the size of an aspirin tablet, and has the power of what used to be a mainframe computer."
"You swallow it, get on line, and a doctor, say, at the Mayo Clinic can sit there with his laptop and move it back and forth and take a scan of your body.
"At 82, I've seen it all. From Morse code to this," Boucher said." But we haven't even seen the beginning of the movement of high-speed data," he said. "It's as much in its infancy as the PC was when I first got on board in 1979."
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