Wireless community networks or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives in order to provide a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for consumers.
MobileStar Network was a wireless Internet service provider which first gained notability in deploying Wi-Fi Internet access points in Starbucks coffee shops, American Airlines Admiral Club locations across the United States and at Hilton Hotels. Founded by Mark Goode and Greg Jackson in 1998, MobileStar was the first wireless ISP to place a WiFi hotspot in an airport, a hotel, or a coffee shop. MobileStar's core value proposition was to provide wireless broadband connectivity for the business traveler in all the places s/he was likely to "sleep, eat, move, or meet." MobileStar's founder, Mark Goode, was the first to coin the now industry standard expression "hotspot," as a reference to a location equipped with an 802.11 wireless access point.
Linksys Holdings, Inc., is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include Wi-Fi routers, mesh Wi-Fi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and Wi-Fi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi interoperability. It is based in Austin, Texas.
Wireless Nomad (wirelessnomad.com) was a for-profit cooperative based in Toronto, Canada providing subscriber-owned home and business Internet access along with free Wi-Fi wireless Internet access and music to over a hundred nodes, making it the largest free Wi-Fi network in the country at the time. It was founded by Steve Wilton and Damien Fox in January 2005, and turned its DSL internet connections over to private ISP TekSavvy in March 2009. All WiFi nodes were subsequently shut down.
Smith Micro Software, Inc., founded in 1982 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software and services. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Smith Micro maintains multiple domestic and international offices. United States locations include Aliso Viejo, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. International offices are located throughout Europe and Asia. Currently, the company focuses on digital lifestyle solutions and security technologies, and is integrated into the evolving wireless media industry, as indicated by partnerships with cellular service providers such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint Corporation, now owned by T-Mobile US after the Sprint & T-Mobile merger in April 2020.
A people counter is an electronic device that is used to measure the number of people traversing a certain passage or entrance. Examples include simple manual clickers, smart-flooring technologies, infrared beams, thermal imaging systems, WiFi trackers and video counters using advanced machine learning algorithms. They are commonly used by retail establishments to judge the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, building design and layout, and the popularity of particular brands.
BlogScope was a search engine for the blogosphere with advanced analysis and visualization technology, founded in 2005. as an outcome of a research project at the University of Toronto. As of Apr 2009, the system indexed over 725 million blog posts. The service was shut down in early 2012.
Sysomos Inc. is a Toronto-based social media analytics company owned by Outside Insight market leaders Meltwater. The company developed text analytics and machine learning technologies for user generated content, and served 80% of the top agencies and Fortune 500.
RUCKUS Networks is a brand of wired and wireless networking equipment and software owned by CommScope. Ruckus offers switches, Wi-Fi access points, CBRS access points, controllers, management systems, cloud management, AAA/BYOD software, AI and ML analytics software, location software and IoT controller software products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises. As a company, Ruckus invented and has patented wireless voice, video, and data technology, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase data rates, and avoid interference, providing distribution of delay-sensitive content over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi.
Act-On Software is a software-as-a-service product for marketing automation. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and was founded in 2008, originally retailing its software exclusively through Cisco, which provided $2 million in funding.
PowerCloud Systems was a cloud networking company located in Palo Alto, California. The company designed and manufactured cloud-powered Wi-Fi systems for businesses, carriers and consumers and was a corporate spin-off from the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a Xerox company. PowerCloud was purchased by Comcast in July 2014.
Jasper Technologies, Inc., formerly Jasper Wireless, Inc., was an American software developer that provided a cloud-based software platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). Jasper's platform was designed to aid in launching, managing, and monetizing the deployment of IoT for enterprise businesses. Founded in 2004, Jasper partners with over 120 mobile operator networks to serve IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) companies in different industries, including automotive, home security and automation, agriculture, food and beverage, wearable technology, healthcare, advertising and industrial equipment.
Mobile location analytics (MLA) is a type of customer intelligence and refers to technology for retailers, including developing aggregate reports used to reduce waiting times at checkouts, improving store layouts, and understanding consumer shopping patterns. The reports are generated by recognizing the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth addresses of cell phones as they interact with store networks.
Eat App is a global restaurant technology company that provides a cloud-based management platform for restaurants, hotels, and other venues. The platform enables venues to accept online reservations seamlessly, manage tables, and enhance customer relationship management (CRM). It utilizes AI to improve operational efficiency, provides marketing automation, and helps build a comprehensive guestbook.
Veniam was a technology startup focused on building large WiFi mesh networks using moving vehicles like city buses or taxis. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California and was founded in 2012. The Company received 4.9 million dollars in 2014 in a funding round from True Ventures, USV and Cane Investments. Veniam's technology is being used in Porto's city buses with about 230,000 users with onboard units (OBUs) installed on over 600 buses, taxis and garbage trucks. They aim to equip many moving things with wireless hotspots creating a mesh that could be used to build sensors to turn the city smarter.Each vehicle is equipped with a NetRider, a multi network unit with Wi-Fi (802.11p), DSRC, GPS and 4G/LTE connectivity. Veniam was acquired by Nexar in 2022.
Purple is a UK-based technology firm that specializes in intelligent spaces. The company offers a three core products guest WiFi, business analytics and digital wayfinding.
July Systems is a Burlingame, California based software provider founded in 2001. The company offers cloud-based SaaS platform, called Proximity MX, that provides location analytics and deliver contextually relevant communication to visitors in a building.
i2e1 is one of the largest Wi-Fi management companies based in India with 8-10% market share of the Wi-Fi industry. The company was incubated by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The Board of Directors of the company include Satyam Darmora, Siddharth Nautiyal, and Brijesh Damodaran.
Area 120 is Google's in-house incubator in which employees work on 20% Project product ideas. It has helped develop Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and Google Cardboard.
