Intel, IBM Team With AT&T To Push Nationwide Wi-Fi

Gambling on the future of wireless connectivity, tech bellwethers AT&T
, Intel and IBM Thursday pooled
their resources behind a new company that will offer wholesale nationwide wireless
Internet access.

The company, Cometa Networks — backed by investment concerns Apax
Partners and 3i — will leverage its backers’ technology to sell services
to telcos, ISPS, cable operators and wireless carriers, which will then be
able to offer their customers broadband wireless Internet access.

“Cometa’s vision and plan for this is to offer a single sign-on, single authentication, seamless-roaming nationwide network,” said Michael Mass, vice president of marketing for the Communications Sector at IBM.

That vision would allow every Internet user in the U.S. to access their existing accounts wirelessly, anywhere in the United States, without changing their accounts or service providers. End-users will be able to keep existing sign-on procedures, e-mail addresses, IDs, passwords and payment methods regardless of the access point, whether its an ISP, corporate VPN, telecommunications provider or cable operator.

For service providers, it will mean the ability to offer wireless services to their customers without having to invest in the wireless infrastructure themselves.

The nationwide network will be founded on 802.11

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