Facebook is offering free Wi-Fi in exchange for their physical coordinates. The initiative began in May 2012, reports Wired, and now “Facebook Wi-Fi” has been deployed in cafes around Palo Alto and San Francisco, and even into a line of Meraki routers made by Cisco.

Facebook Wi-Fi asks users to “check in” at the business location using their Facebook account. Once they do, or once they click a small opt-out link, they are granted free wireless internet access.

The system was originally developed during a hackathon at Facebook’s Seattle office by engineers Mohit Talwar and Adrian Potra, reports Seattle’s GeekWire. It was then assigned a team of three at the company’s Menlo Park, California headquarters to develop the idea further.

Within a few months, reports on Twitter indicated the experiment had spread to San Francisco locations of the Philz Coffee chain.

In May, Cisco announced Facebook Wi-Fi would be included as an optional service on its Meraki line of routers. Facebook is in discussions with other router makers to get Facebook Wi-Fi adopted more broadly, according to Facebook mobile product manager Erick Tseng.

Facebook’s event starts at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday, June 20th, and you can follow along on CNET’s live blog. Facebook Wi-Fi, which could be announced tomorrow, has the virtue of offering users something valuable in return.

Cellular providers sell your (anonymized) location data to the highest bidder, and offer nothing in return.

Facebook just hit 1 million advertisers, indicating it has become a mainstream advertising channel. With the Social Network apparently considering a $1 billion purchase of Waze, it is on the move for location data. Facebook can make far more money by mixing behaviorial targeting with location data. The same deal for Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. They make money though ads.

It’s like “free” radio and television — with better targeting.

Buying licensed spectrum wholesale could be the next step. Both the 600 MHz and 2.6 GHz band are good candidates.

Google could sell more ads with free access and is projected to generate some $3.5 billion in mobile ad revenue next year. How much more ad revenue could they generate with “free” broadband wireless access? Google thinks there’s a $200 billion opportunity as brands shift to online.

Near ubiquitous coverage might be obtained by using 600 MHz spectrum, supplemented by 2.4 (WiFi Hotspot 2.0) and 2.5 GHz (TD-LTE) in urban centers.

Companies that have used Meridian software for location-aware mobile applications include Boston Children’s Hospital, Powell’s City of Books, Las Vegas Sands, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.

Mashable lists 25 Technologies Every Smart City Should Have. Among them should be location-aware city guides that provide hooks for independently produced handheld tours of museums or other public facilities. The new normal.

A free solar charger/hotspot could provide information and downloads in multiple languages. If “free” service were only available to Comcast or AT&T customers the value (and competition) would be limited.

It will be interesting to see if the presumed FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, tries to block “free” broadband, in deference to his cable and cellular buddies. Perhaps he’ll play the “homeland security” card.

Real life may lack the finesse of House of Cards, but it could be just as interesting. Telecommunications in the United States is a trillion dollar industry. Policy is power.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Subsidized Access Vs Free Access, Free WiFi: It’s a Right!, Comcast Creates Hotspot 2.0 National Network, Hotspot 2.0 for Museums & Transit, Cisco Buys Meraki for $1.2 Billion, Verizon & AT&T Launch Targeted Advertising, LTE Broadcast Mobilizes at MWC, Unlimited $20/mo Wireless: New Normal?, Free Google WiFi for NYC Chelsea Neighborhood, Microsoft Sponsors Free WiFi in NYC & SF, Chicago Announces Free WiFi in Parks, Time Warner Cable to Double WiFi Hotspots in 2013, AT&T: 40,000 Small Cells, Kickstarter for Fiber Nets?, FCC Adding 200 MHz to WiFi Band, Seattle’s Gigabit Fiber CityNet,Google Fiber Launches in Kansas City, Small Cells for Cisco, Sprint to use Light Radio for Small Cells, Street light Provides Wi-Fi, Cell Coverage, Hotspot 2.0, Intel: Basestation in the Cloud, Clearwire: On the Hot Zone, Sprint to use LightRadio for Small Cells, LTE iPhone: Game Changer?, London: The Biggest Small Network in the World, FCC: More Backhaul at 6, 11 and 23 GHz

The Wi-Fi Alliance this week kicked off its certification program for 802.11ac, the new 5 GHz beam forming standard. Products conforming to 802.11ac can deliver whole-home coverage at two or three times the speed of older Wi-Fi products and can handle 4K video.

The 802.11ac standard, also known as 802.11 VHT (Very High Throughput), uses the existing 5 GHz Wi-Fi band with wide 80 MHz or 160 MHz channels, improved modulation, and simultaneous multi-user MIMO for throughputs above 1 Gbps.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac operates only in the 5 GHz band, but devices that support the 2.4 GHz band can integrate 802.11n, with dual-band devices switching between the two bands.

The first 802.11ac devices are already available, preceded by chipsets and routers in 2012. But there have to be commercial devices available before they can be certified, explains GigaOm.

The IEEE is still putting the finishing touches on the 802.11ac standard, and a final spec won’t be officially ratified until later this year or early next. A pre-certification program allows the Alliance to start testing for features in the 802.11ac spec that are already locked down and included in current-generation products.

A list of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products, white papers, FAQ, and more is available at www.wi-ficertifiedac.com.

Apple upgraded their MacBook Air this month, along with AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule which Apple says is up to 3 times faster.

Three variants of the new Samsung Galaxy Mega smartphone, as well as the Galaxy S 4 Active were the first smartphones to get the official Wi-Fi stamp of approval.

“AC is going into mobile and portable devices first, which is really different from the last time around,” said WiFi Alliance Marketing Director Kelly Davis-Felner.

The Alliance has opened testing facilities in nine labs around the world and it has pre-certified multiple device reference designs, routers and chipsets from companies like Broadcom, Qualcomm, Realtek and Marvell. That gear is serving as the Alliance’s test bed for certifying end-user devices. AC will start boasting gigabit-plus speeds with wider channels. Quantenna is prepping designs that could go into the first multi-gigabit routers.

The first batch of ac routers and devices will support speeds of 433 Mbps and offer more overall capacity to wireless LANs (supporting more users at faster speeds) than 802.11n.

ABI Research estimates that 40 percent of all ac devices shipped in 2013 will be handsets.

Next would come 802.11ad, which would add the unlicensed 60 GHz band to Wi-Fi. According to Ali Sadri, Director of the Intel Mobile Wireless Group and Chairman of the WiGig Alliance, WiGig has been confirmed as the baseline specification for draft 802.11ad.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Marvel 802.11ac: Now with 4×4 Beamforming, Fast Transistion to 802.11ac Predicts ABI, Broadcom 802.11ac for Phones, Netgear 802.11AC WiFi Router, Cisco 802.11ac Router with Cloud Control, Quantenna: 802.11ac Chipset, Buffalo 802.11ac Routers, What is Miracast?

Kaplan’s TechStars-powered startup accelerator — the latest to launch for education entrepreneurs — is announcing the startups in its inaugural class, reports GigaOm. Kaplan is a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools, and businesses.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator will select startups using technology to create products and services across the broad spectrum of education including K-12, higher education, professional education, lifelong learning, and other areas. TechStars will invest $20,000 in each company accepted into the program.

The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is the first corporate sponsored accelerator focused exclusively on the education sector, using TechStars’ mentor-driven model. TechStars has completed 15 accelerator programs and its selected companies have attracted more than $285 million in funding in the past six years.

Here are the companies in the new class:

• Degreed — As educational opportunities explode with new online learning options, San Francisco-based Degreed wants to rethink what it means to earn credit. The startup, which aims to “jailbreak” the degree, provides an online service that tracks, scores and validates all of a user’s educational experiences. (We’ve covered the startup in the past if you want to learn more.)
• Flinja — Something like a TaskRabbit for college students, Flinja gives students a marketplace for listing services they can provide, which alumni and others in their college networks can then pay for through the site.
• MentorMob — A crowdsourced learning site, MentorMob lets anyone create “playlists” of content on a wide range of topics.
• ModernGuild — Through its online job prep program, ModernGuild helps college students connect with professionals for personalized, career coaching. (We’ve written about this company previously, too, if you’re curious to read more.)
• panOpen — Given the rise of Open Educational Resources (OER), panOpen wants to make it easier for educators and institutions to use free textbooks.
• PlayPowerLabs — Launched out of Carnegie Mellon University, PlayPowerLabs makes engaging math games that are aligned to Common Core state standards for K-8 education.
• Ranku — The startup isn’t sharing too much about it what it does quite yet, just this: “Online degrees you can be proud of from schools you trust.”
• Uvize — Based in Boulder, Colo. (also home to TechStars’ headquarters), Uvize helps military veterans prepare for college with academic instruction, assessment and coaching.
• Verificient Technologies — With the growth in online courses, Verificient plans to offer identity verification, proctoring and credential authentication services.
• Whipsmart — With an online news site for kids, Whipsmart offers teachers a literacy tool that enables kids to read nonfiction content adapted to fit their reading levels.

The White House recently announced a multi-billion dollar ConnectED Program, which would deliver 1 GBps fiber to virtually all schools. Perhaps the new sub-6 GHz band would be a good way to deliver education programs for everyone.

The 1 GB fiber (subsidized by Uncle Sam) might provide backhaul for 600 MHz band neighborhood nodes that could provide nearly blanket broadband wireless coverage. School districts are local governments with powers similar to that of a town or a county.

Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and others may have the means, motivation and the money to deliver low-cost (even free) broadband. Google thinks there’s a $200 billion opportunity as brands shift to online. Intel, Apple, HP, and other hardware companies may also have a horse in this race.

Related DailyWireless stories include; ConnectED Program Announced by White House, White House: Spectrum Sharing for New sub-6 GHz Spectrum, Kickstarter for FiberNets, Google Updates Books and Education Apps, News Corp’s Education Tablet, 600 MHz Auction Speculation, T-Mobile Files 600 MHz Proposal – Eliminating “Free” Spectrum, FCC: TV Auction in 2014

Sprint Nextel has filed a lawsuit against Dish and Clearwire seeking to prevent Clearwire from accepting Dish’s tender offer as well as other injunctive and compensatory relief.

The lawsuit details how Dish has “repeatedly attempted to fool Clearwire’s shareholders into believing its proposal was actionable in an effort to acquire Clearwire’s spectrum and to obstruct Sprint’s transaction with Clearwire,” Sprint said in a statement on Monday.

The 46-page lawsuit said Clearwire’s board of directors “panicked” by dumping a planned merger with Overland Park-based Sprint in favor of an “illegal” rival bid by Dish.

Dish Network said today it would not make a new offer to buy Sprint and will instead focus on its tender offer for Clearwire Corp.

Dish said in a statement that it was not practical for it to submit a revised offer by the June 18 deadline imposed by Sprint even though it “continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint.” The decision may be good news for Japan’s SoftBank, which is also trying to buy Sprint.

Sprint announced in December that Clearwire had agreed to a deal to sell the 50 percent of Clearwire that Sprint does not currently own for $2.97 per share, or $2.2 billion. But Dish countered with a surprise unsolicited bid for Clearwire of $3.30 per share, or $5.15 billion.

Sprint revised its proposal last month to $3.40 a share, edging Dish’s offer by 10 cents a share, an offer Sprint called its “best and final.” Two days before stockholders were scheduled to vote on Sprint’s proposal, Dish came back with an offer that exceeded Sprint’s by $1 a share, valuing the company at $6.3 billion.

The WSJ explains How Clearwire Became the Darling of Telecom.

John Stanton, the current chairman of the board of Clearwire, is a legendary deal maker. Craig McCaw’s alter ego created McCaw Cellular on 800 MHz from scratch, and orchestrated the sale to AT&T for $12 billion. He then created Western Wireless on the 1.9 Ghz PCS band (which became T-Mobile USA) and transformed Nextel into a cellular service, which was then sold to Sprint.

Charlie Ergen, like Craig McCaw and John Stanton, is a compelling character. The new greenfield is 600 MHz, Dish’s 2.1 GHz band, and the small cell frontier on two dot six.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Clearwire Board Backs Dish, SoftBank Upps the Bid for Sprint, Un-Clearwire?, Clearwire Ownership Vote Delayed 2 Weeks, Battle for Clearwire, Clearwire Committee Likes Sprint Offer Best, Verizon to Buy Clear Spectrum for $1.5 Billion?, Sprint Buyout of Clearwire Fought by Crest Financial, Sprint to Buy Clearwire, DISH Proposes to Buy Clearwire, Sprint Buying Clearwire?, Sprint + Dish?, Sprint Gets Majority Control over Clearwire, Sprint Won’t Buy Clear – For Now, Clearwire Cuts TD-LTE Deployment

Samsung is planning an LTE-Advanced version of its Galaxy S4, the company’s co-CEO, told Reuters. It plans to begin selling the phone in South Korea as early as this month.

The phone will reportedly use Qualcomm chips, to achieve data rates twice the normal 4G speed.

Lightreading points to a Mashable article that says Qualcomm’s chips supports speeds of up to 150Mbps, which, they claim, is about half of the minimum standard for LTE-Advanced, as defined by the 3GPP. Only Yota in Russia, claims LightReading, has LTE-Advanced today.

Seems like nitpicking:

• Saudi Arabia Mobily launched the world’s first commercial TD-LTE network (which will be upgraded to LTE-A), in September 2011.
• Softbank launched the world’s largest TD-LTE commercial network in February 2012 in three target cities and has now expanded thoughout Japan.
• Bharti built the first TD-LTE network in South Asia in April 2012. Bharti is India’s largest mobile operator.

AT&T says LTE Advanced will begin rolling out in the second half of this year. AT&T’s LTE footprint now covers 261 markets across the country. AT&T’s current 4G LTE is expected to cover 300 million people by year-end 2014.

Verizon plans to add LTE-A to its network through a small-cell AWS network soon. They currently cover some 500 markets across the USA with LTE on the 700 MHz band.

Sprint offers FD-LTE in about 100 markets. They introduced their PCS band LTE service, in July 2012, and expects to provide 200 million people with LTE by the end of 2013.

Time Division LTE uses only a single 20 MHz channel, about half the combined speed of two 20 MHz channels. In addition, the 300 Mbps expected in a 20 MHz LTE-A channel is only available with 4×4 MIMO. That’s not likely to be available on a phone.

The 3G and 4G Wireless Blog aggregates lots of white papers and presentations that explore and explain LTE-A.

There are five different LTE User Equipment categories as can be seen in the table (above) supporting different parameters and performance. LTE category 1, for example does not support MIMO, but LTE UE category five supports 4×4 MIMO, which is handy for fixed service but not so much for mobile.

T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray discussed his company’s LTE rollout at CES this January. T-Mobile has said it plans to launch LTE for 100 million pops by mid-year, with 200 million covered by the end of 2013. Las Vegas is expected to be T-Mobile’s first LTE city. T-Mobile operates GSM on 1900 MHz (PCS) in the US and puts HSPA (and LTE) on the AWS band (1.7/2.1 GHz).

T-Mobile inked multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) last year to deploy its $4 billion 4G network. The agreements call for Release 10-capable equipment, also known as LTE Advanced, at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile’s network, by the end of 2013.

NSN will provide its Evolved Packet Core platform, including Flexi NS (Network Server) and Flexi NG (Network Gateway). The company will also provide its Single RAN Advanced platform based on its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station. It’s LTE-Advanced ready, and can evolve today’s 3G and LTE networks to future technologies with a software upgrade.

T-Mobile was the first carrier in North America to rollout Ericsson’s antenna-integrated radios for faster deployment and reduced site loading. Ericsson launched its antenna-integrated radios at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last year. According to CTO Neville Ray, “We can save months in terms of deployment with this product on a per-site basis.”

T-Mobile USA is currently deploying Ericsson’s AIR 21 product. According to Ray, it offers a fast-track way of getting LTE into the marketplace.

Ericsson’s latest offering in the family is the AIR 32, which allows operators to add LTE or HSPA(+) without deploying additional antennas or remote radio heads (RRHs) on cell sites. According to Ericsson, the new model claims up to 70% higher throughput than its predecessors by implementing 4×4 MIMO antenna arrays, and up to 25% better indoor coverage. It supports multiple active frequencies, reducing radio equipment by 50%.

The Vegas launch will be followed by “a series of LTE markets coming on line through Q1 and Q2,” Ray said.

T-Mobile and Clearwire are both building true LTE-Advanced networks. T-Mobile will be using FD-LTE in the AWS band and Clearwire will be using TD-LTE in the 2.6 GHz band. T-Mobile has also made HSPA+ service available in the 1900 MHz band, for compatibility of the iPhone, which doesn’t (yet) support the AWS band.

Sprint uses an earlier release of LTE in the 58 markets it currently covers using it’s FD-LTE technology (5 MHz x 5 MHz) in the PCS band, but it will be upgraded to LTE-A in the first half of 2013, according to Sprint’s CTO (above).

Apple, LG, and ZTE plan smartphones for China Mobile’s TD-LTE system which is expected to have 200,000 basestations by year end. ZTE has completed the first TDD-based voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) call on the 2.6 GHz band using a smartphone with a 13-band Marvell chipset.

There are several TD-LTE supported smartphones for the Indian market.

IHS forecasts that China Mobile will sign up 228 million TD-LTE subscribers by 2017. That’s twice as many TD-LTE subs just for China Mobile than all the world’s LTE subs combined today.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Dish Demos Rooftop LTE, China Mobile Awards Contracts for TD-LTE, WiMax Forum Embraces TD-LTE, Small Cell, Big Growth, Sprint to use LightRadio for Small Cells, Cisco Small Cells , Huawei on Small Cells , China Mobile: Go For TD-LTE Launch, Clearwire: On the Hot Zone, Qualcomm Aims for Everything with S4 Processor Family, Clearwire Cuts TD-LTE Deployment, South Korea Completes Nationwide LTE Coverage Ericsson: Big Guns in Barcelona, What is LTE-Advanced?,

Tom Wheeler, the former head lobbyist for the cable and wireless phone industry, and nominated to lead the FCC by President Obama, will face his Senate confirmation hearing tomorrow. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will webcast the hearing live on their website tomorrow.

He is likely to be questioned on the agency’s plans to implement incentive auctions of broadcast TV spectrum next year, among many other issues, notes Fierce Wireless.

According to a Republican staff memo, Wheeler said that the top three challenges the FCC would encounter under his leadership are:

• Implementing the spectrum auctions and creating a public safety network
• The IP transition–overseeing the transition from analog switched-circuit networks to Internet Protocol (IP) delivery
• Advancing civil society through communications, iuncluding the broadband buildout and promoting diversity.

Republicans are concerned the FCC will craft auction rules that will limit the amount of spectrum that AT&T Verizon Wireless can acquire, and will likely ask about Wheeler’s views on how the auction rules should be crafted.

Wheeler was chief executive of the National Cable Television Association for five years and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association for 12 years before becoming a venture capitalist.

Wheeler’s supporters say he backed the net neutrality rules the F.C.C. adopted in 2010 to prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against content that competes with their own. But he also suggested that federal regulators merely impose conditions on AT&T’s 2011 bid to buy T-Mobile, which, was blocked by the Obama administration.

The US telecommunications environment is clearly more competitive due to the action by the Justice Department in blocking the ATT/T-Mobile merge.

The US Department of Justice has recently called on the FCC to more aggressively regulate the amount of 600 MHz spectrum that AT&T and Verizon can own. William J. Baer, the assistant attorney general who oversees the antitrust division, told a Senate subcommittee (pdf) that limits were needed to promote competition in the market for wireless broadband service.

“The Department of Justice’s principal concern is that acquisitions of spectrum, whether at auction or through subsequent transactions, should not be used to create or enhance market power,” it wrote in a letter to the FCC (pdf).

The FCC is preparing to conduct a new auction in the 600MHz band. The DOJ worries that the spectrum will be dominated by AT&T and Verizon, ensuring no further competitors can come to market.

“The Department concludes that rules that ensure the smaller nationwide networks, which currently lack substantial low-frequency spectrum, have an opportunity to acquire such spectrum could improve the competitive dynamic among nationwide carriers and benefit consumers.”

“Today, the two leading carriers have the vast majority of low-frequency spectrum, whereas the two other nationwide carriers have virtually none. This results in the two smaller nationwide carriers having a somewhat diminished ability to compete, particularly in rural areas where the cost to build out coverage is higher with high-frequency spectrum.”

Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, says the Department of Justice is going too far in attempts to regulate spectrum auction.

Congress expressly mandated that no bidders be excluded from the auctions. Yet DOJ would do precisely that. Such interventions are frequently unfair and usually unwise, given the difficulty of predicting the future, especially as it relates to technology.

Currently, both cable and cellular operators hope to eviscerate “free” WiFi hotspots and make everyone paid subscribers.

A handful of companies have kept mobile wireless artificially high, as the cost of delivering cell service has plummeted. Consumers are the product for wireless carriers – even though wireless broadband is far from “free”.

There’s a better way. It’s called competition.

Gigabit fiber to schools could be the first step in low-cost 600 MHZ broadband services. Education in the Cloud could save billions from the Universal Service Fund that all consumers pay into.

As the former head of the cable and wireless lobby, Tom Wheeler is well practiced in the art of persuasion. Perhaps he’ll convince skeptics in the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow.

Wheeler’s Mobile Musings, which is a bit on the dry side, supported the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

Related DailyWireless stories include; Wheeler Tapped to Head FCC, 600 MHz Auction Speculation, White House: Spectrum Sharing for New sub-6 GHz Spectrum, Comcast Creates Hotspot 2.0 National Network, Kickstarter for FiberNets, ConnectED Program Announced by White House, T-Mobile Files 600 MHz Proposal – Eliminating “Free” Spectrum, FCC: TV Auction in 2014, FCC Auction Plans for 2014, Cellcos to FCC: Give Us 2 GHz TV Microwave, Municipal Broadband: On Again?, FirstNet: Get Utilities to Pay for It, It’s Official: Austin Gets Google Fiber, FCC Approves Dish Spectrum for Mobile Broadband , Mobile: The New Television, FCC Moves on TV Frequency Auction, FCC Makes TV Spectrum Sharing Official, FCC Gets White Space Autonomy, Municipal Broadband: On Again?, FirstNet: Get Utilities to Pay for It, It’s Official: Austin Gets Google Fiber,