Exciting news! We've got new features that we're rolling out this summer! Sign up to receive your free "Gigazad My Wi-Fi" account that will let you log in and manage ALL your hotspot locations and wireless access points from one easy-to-use web site.

You'll be able to:

• Update your own promotional messages on your wi-fi welcome page.
• Upload a promotion to show to your customers while they surf.
• Set or change your wi-fi access code.
• Access your monthly reports and usage statistics.
• Update your hours of operation (to disable use when closed or during busy times).

Gigazad My Wi-Fi is free! Contact your account representative or mywifi@gigazad.com.

At Gigazad we've always believed that you want your free Internet access in convenient places, like laptop-friendly cafés and coffee shops. Many people questioned our strategy because of all the hype over the past two years about city-wide Wi-Fi deployments. But now it seems that municipal projects have run into problems, and the pundits are changing their tune.

Yesterday in Information Week's article "Municipal Wi-Fi: A Promise Unfulfilled?", Jeff Merran wrote:

But recently some big, heavily-touted muni Wi-Fi initiatives, most notably in Chicago and San Francisco, have been cancelled, having been felled by a number of problems. The consultants and analysts I spoke with agreed that local politicians, seeking voter support, latched onto the idea a few years ago and made commitments prematurely.

And he described his experience trying to use municipal Wi-Fi from a café:

I walked over to a coffee shop, ordered a latte, and powered up my PowerBook. No signal. He asked if another customer could connect. "Not right now," she said, "but sometimes if you sit right next to the window you can pull in a signal."

This article prompted lots of discussion on Slashdot, like this comment:

I don't know about any other cities, but in Portland, Oregon the municipal wifi was billed as a wonderful system that would provide everyone with free broadband. Well if you can log in to the system, you find all sorts of limitations - and something else - that there is a parallel pay Wifi system run by the same company.

Gigazad is committed to bringing free Wi-Fi everywhere YOU need it! Don't wait for your city to set up access for you. Let your favorite café or hotel know that Gigazad is the win-win solution for both customers and the businesses they visit!

We've made some great enhancements to our technology, and most of our hotspots will be getting an upgrade shortly. Improvements include:
- More control for our site partners over exactly which Internet services users are allowed to access. For example, your Gigazad Access Point can be configured to block peer-to-peer file sharing.
- More consistent user experience.
- Improved branding on welcome page.
- Improved reporting for our advertising and site partners.
- Improved monitoring.
- Google search directly from welcome page.

Gigazad now offers Wireless Internet for events at conference centres, hotels, and other venues. Attendees appreciate the free essential service, and Gigazad provides a great way for advertisers to target their message to a specific consumer or business group. This week, we are providing wireless Internet and complimentary laptops at the WinterPRIDE event at the Telus Whistler Conference Centre in the resort town of Whistler, BC, Canada (co-host of the 2010 Winter Olympics)!


We also have our first regular hotspot in Whistler. Free Internet Access is now available at Black's Original Ristorante & Pub, 4270 Mountain Square.

The first of many Gigazad hotspots has arrived in Toronto! Café Vert, at 946 Queen St. East. now offers free wireless Internet.

According to the Ultimate Brunch Guide:

"Launched last fall, Leslieville’s Café Vert could be the archetype for eco-conscious eateries. Not only is most of its mainly vegetarian menu organic, but it’s also prepared with heart and social conviction, in a delightfully eclectic room decorated that makes you want to hang around forever."

Read more on their web site: www.lecafevert.com.

You may have thought Vancouver's Kits Beach had it all - an enormous outdoor pool, beautiful people, tennis, beach volleyball, ... but then Watermark Restuarant opened and added fine dining (upstairs) and a nice little café (downstairs) to the mix, 7 days a week.

And now, the Watermark is providing Free Gigazad Wi-Fi! Multiple access points provide a strong signal to all users whether they are in the restuarant, the café, the outdoor seating area, or surrounding areas.

See you at the beach!

The city of Seattle is famous for its coffee and its coffee shops, and since it is only 2 hours away from Gigazad's head office it is a natural place to start expanding our network in the USA.

HungryMind Magazine Café® now has Gigazad Free Wi-Fi. It is located in the Financial District of Downtown Seattle at 717 4th Ave [map]. The bright and airy café has an uplifting atmosphere with a blend of progressive music, a gourmet sandwich deli with indoor and outdoor seating, an espresso and tea bar, and more than 2000 different magazines, including specialty and foreign titles. The café is open Monday to Saturday.

Advertising opportunities are available on both the Wi-Fi service and on digital signage (provided by Evenio Media).

Their web site, http://www.mylesofbeans.ca, proclaims: "GREAT LIVE MUSIC, GREAT COFFEE, GREAT FOOD, LIQUOR LICENSE, AIR CONDITIONED". Now Myles of Beans Coffee House has a new claim to fame: Free Wireless Internet! Open at 6:30 am on weekdays, and to 11pm with live music on weekends, this location reaches a wide demographic in a busy location.

7010 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC Canada

Our first free Wi-Fi location in Abbotsford is now up and running. City Blends Coffee now offers free Wi-Fi in this underserved suburban market. Not only is it a convenient location, but it has excellent hours as well, 6 am - 10 pm. This is an advertising opportunity for both advertisers in this community as well as promotions for the entire Vancouver Lower Mainland area.

Ellwood Centre
11 - 31205 Old Yale Road
Abbotsford, BC, Canada

It's a great thing that the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC) has campus-wide Wi-Fi for students, faculty, and staff. But what about the rest of us? Now everyone gets free WiFi at UBC! Pearl Fever Tea House now has free WiFi using Gigazad technology. It's easy to find in the University Marketplace at the entrance to UBC near Wesbrook Mall and University Boulevard.

The address is 2182 Western Parkway, and they're open from 11 am - 11 pm.

We're pleased to announce the addition of Coffee A Go Go Coffee House to our network of free Wi-Fi locations. Located at 829 Davie Street, it is an excellent location serving downtown workers, tourists, and Yaletown residents.

There's no question that travellers would find it useful to have Internet service onboard aircraft, but Boeing found out the hard way they're not willing to pay US$27.95 per flight!

"Over the last six years, we have invested substantial time, resources and technology in Connexion by Boeing," said Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney. "Regrettably, the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected."

Their service is being phased out, but no doubt this is not the end of WiFi on aircraft. It's just another sign that the future of Wi-Fi will depend on advertising revenue rather than user fees!

You can read the full press release from Boeing at http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q3/060817a_nr.html.

Gigazad has begun an ongoing press release campaign to get the word out about our advertising and hotspot opportunities. Some of the recent media to cover our story have been:

CanadaIT.com,
http://www.canadait.com/cfm/index.cfm?It=106&Id=24365&Se=0&Lo=442
and

MediaInCanada.com.
There have also been a number of articles about our WiFi installation at Vancouver's Nat Bailey Stadium. More media articles are coming soon!

In anticipation of our expansion into central Canada, all Gigazad locations now support both English and French users. The Gigazad web page that is displayed at the start of a Wi-Fi session, as well as the ad pages, are displayed in the appropriate language based on the user's web browser language preference settings. Advertisers may provide ads in both French and English versions

Consistent with our intention of building a North America-wide network of advertising-supported Free Wireless Internet Hotspots, Gigazad's first location outside of British Columbia was activated today. The Bison Mountain Bistro in the mountain resort town of Banff, Alberta, Canada now offers Gigazad Wi-Fi service to customers on both levels of their restuarant complex. Banff has the highest elevation of any town in Canada and there are over 4 million visitors to the area each year. For our advertisers, this year-round tourist destination complements our locations in hotels/hostels and sports entertainment venues.

Microsoft's new iPod-like device will have Wi-Fi advertising, according to this story on gizmodo.com:

"... a WiFi Proximity sensor that works similarly to how movie theatres are Bluetoothing ads to ... cellphone users. When you venture in range of an "Ad-Node", the node sends you a new message to your device, which may be in the form of a 15 second ad. A new message indicator will pop up and notify you, which will then give you say, a 10% off coupon if you watch the ad."

Read the article.

CBC Radio interviewed Roger Kingkade at Nat Bailey Stadium today, and discussed the new Gigazad Wireless Internet service. It included a good discussion of why fans would find this useful (tracking statistics, following other games, playing hooky from work, etc.) and how our ads work.

Listen to an MP3 clip from the interview

Other recent online media coverage of Wi-Fi at Nat Bailey includes:

• C|NET - Wi-Fi in the minor leagues
• C|NET - Take tech out to the ball game--sort of
• CBC - Free wireless at the ballpark

There was excellent coverage of one of our latest installations in the Sunday edition of British Columbia's "The Province" newspaper on June 25.

"... Vancouver's single-A baseball team is upping the technological ante with the installation of free high-speed wireless Internet access. ... The stop-and-go nature of baseball and its fans' passion for statistics also lends itself to quick perusals of the World Wide Web when the action has paused. It's a great way to get people out to our nooners who have to stay connected to the office. ... I think by season's end we're going to see a lot of people with laptops following other games, checking the stats as the game goes on."

The half-page article included a photo of one of the Wi-Fi users at the stadium, and mentioned Gigazad Networks and our advertising-based business model.

You can read the complete article at The Province web site.

Nat Bailey Stadium launched their Gigazad free wireless Internet service in time for the season opener! More details will be published soon. See www.gigazad.com for more information.





Monday, June 19 - 7:05pm




 


 
        Yakima Bears

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Vancouver Canadians

Looking for FREE wireless Internet access when you visit Vancouver? SameSun Backpacker Lodges is now offering Gigazad's new service to their guests in addition to the available computers. This service is proving very popular with over 30 unique users before we put up information notices!

Gigazad hotspots (wireless Internet locations) are simpler to use than other services. You do not need to provide an email address, credit card, or any other identification, and most sites do not require an access code or any complicated computer settings.

Vancouver's Gigazad Networks Inc. provides all their locations with professional installation, and their system remotely monitors all of their wireless Internet locations to ensure trouble-free use.

Gigazad is currently offering free installation to Vancouver area businesses who would like to offer free wireless Internet to their customers.