Hawaii Officially Launches TWC WiFi

At an event at the University of Hawaii’s Stan Sheriff Center last week, Oceanic Time Warner Cable officially announced that the company has begun deployment of TWC WiFi™, a statewide WiFi Hotspot network for its customers. Access to the TWC WiFi network is free to Oceanic Time Warner Cable customers with Standard Internet or above and to Oceanic Time Warner Cable Business Class Internet customers.

“Increasingly, our Hawaii customers want to take their high-speed Internet with them out of the home and on-the-go,” said Oceanic President Bob Barlow. “The TWC WiFi network we’re building for Hawaii will allow our customers to greatly maximize their TWC Internet subscription – at no additional charge.”

Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s President Bob Barlow

On Oahu, customers can access over 400 TWC WiFi Hotspots with hundreds more coming in 2013 as Oceanic Time Warner Cable builds out the network. TWC WiFi will be introduced at popular locations where residents eat, live and play. Recent additions are Sunset Beach, Kailua District Park and the Stan Sheriff Center. Below are some scenes from the night.

VIP access passes [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Garrison Yuen, Todd Silva and Travis Santos from our sales team are ready to address any TWC WiFi related questions [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Senior Director of Mobile Product Management Vijay Venkateswaran, University of Hawaii Associate Athletics Director John McNamara & VP of Wireless Engineering & Technology Ahmed Bencheikh [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Senior Manager of Mobile Product Management Dave Hawkins, John McNamara, Ahmed Bencheikh & Project Manager Les Young [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Ahmed Bencheikh, Bob Barlow & Vijay Venkateswaran hanging loose [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Director of Outside Plant Engineering & Construction Mitch Miyoshi & Ruckus Wireless’ Edwin Menor [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

University of Hawaii Associate Athletics Director Marilyn Moniz-Kaho’ohanohano, Wireless Coordinator Gwen Kojima & VP of Marketing & Sales Clara Long [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Project Manager Courtney Hubbard & boyfriend Clint [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Executive Administrative Assistant Leatrice Galicinao, Business Class Support Manager Shannon Morgan-Peirce & Director of Sales (GM) Maryann Sacharski [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Web Content Developer Cy Shinkawa, CyberCom, Inc.’s Peter Kay & Senior Marketing Manager Shelley Thomas [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Former Olympian and Beach Volleyball star Kevin Wong & Executive Producer of Live Sports Candace Fujishima [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Lt. Governor of the State of Hawaii Shan Tsutsui addresses the crowd. Read about the launch event on his blog here.

University of Hawaii Athletics Director Ben Jay

The crowd

John McNamara, Ahmed Bencheikh, Shan Tsutsui, Ben Jay, Interim University of Hawaii President David Lassner & Bob Barlow [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Clearly M’s Rob Bertholf and Ann Boots & Director of Marketing Matt Mishina [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

Business Class Marketing Manager Yvonne Yanagihara, Director of Wireless Kiman Wong & Marketing Specialist Maribel Quemado [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

VP of Business Services Cyrus Driver & Vijay Venkateswaran [Photo Credit: Kiman Wong]

AT Marketing’s Toby Tamaye, Shelley Thomas, Wireless Manager Edward Sugimoto & Maribel Quemado

Oceanic Time Warner Cable Internet customers also have access to the nation’s largest free WiFi Hotspot network, with over 150,000 hotspots, through the Cable WiFi network name. The network enables Oceanic Time Warner Cable Internet customers to access the hotspots operated by TWC and other cable companies in major cities across the country including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Orlando, Tampa, Kansas City, Austin, Charlotte and more.

To connect to TWC WiFi, users should look for the TWCWiFi network name in their connection manager, open their browser and login. To easily locate and access TWC WiFi Hotspots, customers are encouraged to download the free TWC WiFi Finder app available in Google Play and the Apple App Store or visit coverage.twcwifi.com to view the hotspot coverage map. For more information about Time Warner Cable WiFi, visit www.twc.com/wifi.

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Ready, Set IntelliGo! – Sharing Your Road Runner Mobile Connection Just Got Easier!

Late last month, Oceanic Time Warner Cable introduced an exciting, new product to add to the Road Runner Mobile lineup. Nicknamed IntelliGo, the Sierra Wireless W801 Personal Mobile Hotspot acts like a portable mini-router and allows you to share your Road Runner Mobile connection – on the go! – with up to 5 friends via standard Wi-Fi connectivity.

The IntelliGo, from Oceanic Time Warner Cable

Dimensions and Features

This portable little device (3.15″ x 3.15″ x 0.61″ and 4.6 oz) has a 1.4″ LCD display (displays key messages like your SSID and password, battery level, and amount of connected users), and comes with an 1800mAh battery (est. 6 hours of use) and USB/AC charger. There is also a microSD slot that can hold a card of up to 32GB. See below for a diagram and a hands-on video of the IntelliGo.

Diagram of the new IntelliGo

IntelliGo – Sierra Wireless W801 Personal Mobile Hotspot Unboxing

Technical Specs

Technically speaking, the IntelliGo receives in both 4G (WiMax – 2.5GHz) and 3G (CDMA – 800/1900 MHz) frequencies and transmits Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) using the 802.11 b/g standard protocols.

What does this mean exactly? In layman’s terms, this simply means that the IntelliGo will get the greatest coverage (both 4G and 3G) wherever you go, and will share that via a common Wi-Fi signal that many of your devices already speak to.

Several examples of Wi-Fi devices that you might use are:

• Laptops
• Netbooks
• iPads
• Mobile phones (e.g. iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, Garmin Nuvifone, etc.)
• iPod Touch
• Nintendo DS
• Sony PSP
• Eye-Fi SD memory cards
• Microsoft Zune

Easy Set Up

The IntelliGo is really, REALLY easy to set up. Out of the box, all you would have to do is pop in the battery and hold down the power button to turn the puppy on. It will go through its cycle for a few seconds and display your default SSID (network name) and password on the external display (you can edit these in the settings later). Since it’s shooting out standard Wi-Fi, there isn’t any software to install device(s)!

Ed’s Tip: On the initial setup, I would recommend you use a laptop (something with a larger screen), as the setup wizard will guide you through several screens to configure your settings. I used my HTC EVO 4G (mobile phone) initially, and, although I was still able to get it done, it was a little tricky reading text and hitting buttons.

Once the IntelliGo powers up completely and has your default SSID and password displayed, go to your laptop and scan for new wireless networks. Select the IntelliGo’s SSID (named “TWC4GMobile-xxx”) and enter the password provided (a series of 6 random numbers). The LCD screen will then prompt you to open a web page, which will automatically redirect you to the Time Warner Cable’s Terms of Service page, which you must review and accept. This is a one time process.

One time Agreement screen

Once you have accepted the terms of service, you’re “All G”, unless you would like to configure your device further (change the SSID, password, encryption method, etc.).

Ed’s Tips: By default, the device uses WEP encryption. Probably for compatibility reasons (with older devices). I would recommend changing that to WPA or WPA2, as long as your connecting devices are compatible. I would also recommend changing the default SSID and password to something more personal and secure (the default 6 digit password is easy to crack). Lastly, I would recommend changing the default administrative password (“password” is used to access the IntelliGo’s administrative portal).

All of the above can be accessed by going to the administrative portal at http://twc4gmobile (192.168.0.1) while connected to the IntelliGo. This admin backend acts much like the 192.168.1.1 backend on your Linksys wireless router at home.

The IntelliGo’s Administrative Portal

Via this backend, you can also set up and control two other neat features of the IntelliGo: 1) GPS, and 2) the microSD Card.

You can use the GPS to find local points of interest, like hotels, restaurants, banks and gas stations. You can even pull up local Time Warner Cable offices! Sweet! With the microSD card configured, you can share files, music, pictures and more to your 5 connected devices.

If anything I wrote above went right over your head and confused you even more, here’s a more practical (and visual) look at what the IntelliGo (Sierra Wireless W801) is and how you can use it. It’s Hawaii’s resident tech expert Peter Kay breaking things down in simple, easy-to-understand terms in his video below.

Peter Kay’s Testimonial

Exciting huh? The IntelliGo is a pretty powerful device that I, personally, have been having a lot of fun playing with, and sharing with anyone and everyone who will listen. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me using the form to the right or post a comment below.

If you’d prefer to educate yourself, feel free to check out one of the following, pertinent links:

• What Is Road Runner Mobile and Where Does It Work?
• AndHere.com Road Runner Mobile Blog (visually shows you where Road Runner Mobile works here in Hawaii)
• IntelliGo Sierra Wireless W801 Product Info Page
• Road Runner Mobile National Elite Plan (the plan you need for the IntelliGo)
  

If you can’t contain your excitement and know this is something you really want… NEED even 😛 , visit the ordering options page where you can order directly online via My Account, complete an inquiry form for a follow up, chat with one of our online reps, or call Oceanic Time Warner Cable direct.

Ready for some 4G/Wi-Fi fun? On your mark… Get Set… IntelliGo Go GO!

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Great News! If you order between now and September 30th, 2010 (with a two year contract), you can have the IntelliGo for just $49 ($50 mail in rebate). Order Road Runner Mobile Here

Fun Day Monday – Pet Peeves

The other day, I saw some clown wearing his shades indoors. Mo’ worse, it was night time. *groan* I never understood this. Am I supposed to be impressed with their uber coolness or somethin’?

Now I know that there may be some – with serious eye issues – who have the need for darkened lenses, and I completely sympathize with them. The peeps I’m actually talking about are the “I’m-wearing-these-mack-daddy-shades-at-night-so-I-can-attempt-to-be-too-cool-for-school” type. Oh boy.

Now that we have an entire weekend under our belts, I thought this might be a good time to vent, ala kuya.d‘s “I’m So Over It” post. And yeah, I could’ve sworn we’ve done this “pet peeve” topic before, but the only one I could find was our traffic pet peeve post. So vent it all out. What are some of your biggest pet peeves?

Corey Hart – “Sunglasses at Night” (Chris Geo Trance Remix)

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Hijack This!
* Excited for the new “Hawaii Five-O“?
* What is going on with Orlando dangit!!!??? Think it’s gonna be another Lakers-Celtics epic showdown?
* How ’bout dem Wahine softball players? They beat Texas Tech 7-1 in the Stanford Regional Championship game and are now going on to face top-ranked Alabama in next week’s NCAA Super Regionals! How awesome is that!? Goooo Wahine!
* Thoughts on Djou’s victory?
* When you have some time, please check out my new project: AndHere.com. In an attempt to illustrate and educate err-one about what Road Runner Mobile is and where you can use it, I’ve been going around town, taking photos and testing Road Runner Mobile speeds to post on the site. Starting today, local Twitter superstars Peter Kay, Melissa Chang and Russ Sumida will pitch in and tweet/blog their experiences with RR Mobile as well. Lemme know what you guys think! 🙂

Road Runner Mobile Works Here (AndHere.com)