Wi Fi at SBC Park

The Giants will play in a field fully saturated with Wi-Fi, free to fans during 2004: SBC makes it count at home by combining their expensive naming rights to the Giants ballpark in San Francisco with its new FreedomLink Wi-Fi service. The park has 121 access points, and SBC is offering free service for 2004. Nortel is involved in the deployment, while Intel has verified the location for its Centrino branding.

I think this is a really cool idea. It’s certainly not a world-changer but I think it would be cool to be able to IM someone across the stadium during a game. But it really only makes sense to me if it’s free. I don’t see the service as something worth paying for.

And I agree with Wi-Fi Networking News’ statement :”If you want to increase people’s engagement, don’t push at them, but provide them more ways to talk to each other.” That seems like a simple truth but how often do we really see it from so-called service providers.