Lucent Technologies Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J. is actively marketing “Wi-Fi on the Go,” which would complement Lucent's EV-DO wireless technology.
At the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association conference this week in Atlanta, Lucent said it received $525 million from Verizon Wireless to deploy the EV-DO technology.
Lucent has entered into one deal with a limo firm, company executives at the tradeshow said, and has approached other transportation-oriented companies.
“It’s a great idea and could make money for the adult web industry with more accessibility,” said Garuda Edwards, a Honolulu-based network tech consultant. “The only problem is if the government gets involved because you would have porn surfers in public places.”
EV-DO stands for "evolution data optimized," which provides wider range coverage of wireless broadband access than Wi-Fi does. Similar to DSL service, it offers an average data speed of 300-500 kilobits per second.
Many laptops already come with Wi-Fi access already built in, and this would be a way to make the network available to users without EV-DO modem cards.
Verizon Wireless announced earlier this year a $1 billion plan to roll out high-speed wireless Internet over the next two years. Currently Verizon said its EV-DO service is available in San Diego and Washington D.C., and the company plans to expand its network by nearly 30 percent by the end of the year.