Next-generation wireless Net eyed for Nantucket

As soon as next month, Nantucket could be known as a hotspot for another reason: high-speed wireless Internet access.

Plans by island start-up Wi-Blast Inc. would make Nantucket one of New England's first examples of a next-generation approach to WiFi net access. Instead of offering ''wireless fidelity" hotspot service just in coffee shops and hotel lobbies, Wi-Blast will offer subscribers coverage across more than 800 acres by networking WiFi transmitters together.

The arrival of widespread WiFi access on the playground of beautiful people and billionaires would mark a watershed in commercial WiFi technology, which Pyramid Research of Cambridge expects to total 16,000 US locations by year's end.

Nantucket visitors and residents signing up for the service -- to be marketed as ACKBlast in honor of the island airport's famous three-letter code -- would be able to carry a laptop or handheld computer virtually anywhere in the heart of town, or sit on a boat in the nearby harbor. And they could connect to the Internet at speeds of 1 megabit per second or higher, or a rate that's 20 times faster than standard dial-up.

The service would be delivered through transmitting devices made by Tropos Networks Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., that are small enough to hang from street lights and telephone poles.

John Havil, Wi-Blast president and chief executive, said the company hopes the near-invisible transmitting technology will help quash any concerns about broadband wireless blighting the quaint island resort.

''We're not looking to change Nantucket. We're just looking to change how people connect to the Internet on Nantucket," Havil said. ''We're really looking to build a hot zone, not hotspots. We see hotspots as being just phone booths in a cellular world."

Nantucket town administrator Elizabeth Gibson said the company may need a license ''to occupy space in a public way." The town counsel is reviewing the plan, and it could be another four to eight weeks before it comes to selectmen for approval, Gibson said. ''The town is going to be expecting something in return," she added. ''What that will be, I don't know."

Early experiences on Nantucket suggest there is booming demand for WiFi. The island already sports a half-dozen or so commercial high-speed wireless Net access locations. For example, Nantucket Island Resorts late last year had a WiFi company called Single Digits Inc. install coverage for its properties, including The Cottages at the Boat Basin, Harbor House Village, and The Wauwinet. It costs $10 a day or $60 a month to connect.

So far this year, it has grossed $16,000, and ''at this pace, it will pay for itself within a year," said Michel Ducamp, the resorts' director of operations. ''Guests love it. They feel like it allows them to link their business with their vacation time, and not feel like they're too far out of touch."

Ducamp said he expects WiFi will become a free amenity for resort guests within five years, but for now the Single Digits system enables the resorts company to recoup the cost of installing WiFi. Already, some companies are offering free WiFi. Yesterday, Panera Bread Co. said it is offering free coverage at 325 of its 637 bakery cafes, including Massachusetts locations in Arlington, Chelmsford, Framingham, North Andover, North Attleborough, North Dartmouth, and Quincy.

For Nantucket's 9,000 full-time residents, landline broadband Net access is available virtually throughout the island from Comcast Corp., the cable company. Verizon Communications Inc. offers phone-based digital subscriber line access in part of the island, and wireless Net services that operate at speeds comparable to dial-up phone modems are available from Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, and other cellphone companies.

Havil said that Nantucket's population swells to as many as 50,000 during the summer with vacationers, making it an ideal market for a short-term WiFi service. Havil said ACKBlast has not decided on a pricing plan yet, but will offer a free community information ''portal" at ackblast.com that anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop computer can see.

One perk for users is that AirPath Wireless Inc. of Waltham, which is working with Tropos on providing the ACKBlast service, will let Nantucket subscribers get free access to more than 5,000 WiFi hotspots in 28 countries operated by AirPath customers.

Tropos chief executive Ron Sege, who was formerly chairman of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, said Nantucket would be the company's biggest resort WiFi deployment outside ski mountains in Pennsylvania and British Columbia.

The Tropos system requires installing nine to 15 transmitter boxes to cover a square mile at a cost of $20,000 to $30,000. Referring to local opposition over plans for 130 electric-generating turbines in Nantucket Sound, Sege said of the Tropos device: ''The best thing is it doesn't look like a windmill."

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.