A Framework for Comparing Wireless Internet Service Providers with Neighborhood Area Networks

Sameer Verma

Paul Beckman

Information Systems and Business Analysis

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA 94132

sverma@sfsu.edu

pbeckman@sfsu.edu

Abstract

Local wireless networking using the unlicensed 802.11 range of frequencies has reached levels of technology, economics, and simplicity, such that residential home users can and do construct their own. Their increasing popularity has produced two fundamentally different models by which local residential areas can be connected with high-speed wireless networks. One model is a wireless extension of the for-profit concept of an ISP (internet service provider); the other is a not-for-profit organization called a NAN (neighborhood area network). While the two models are completely different in their profit motives, they can become competitors for the same end-using customer.

This research paper proposes a framework of dimensions along which this very new area of wireless bandwidth provision can be investigated. The framework consists of four dimensions (technological, financial, legal, and social) with which to compare each of the two models. The goal of the project is to lay a foundation by which future research can predict the efficacy of either model or extract characteristics along any of the four dimensions that would suggest successful hybrid business models.

Presented at and published in the Conference Proceedings of the 2002 Americas Conference on Information Systems, Dallas, Texas, August 8-11, 2002.