The United States Marine Corps. announced this month that it will be completing an Internet installation initiative by the end of the year, equipping barracks at bases around the world with wireless service. 

As part of an agreement with Marine Corps Non-Appropriated Fund Business and Support Services Division and Army and Air Force Support Services, enlisted barracks will be outfitted with Wi-Fi service by January 2016. Bachelor quarters for soldiers and airmen will also be equipped with the new Wi-Fi connection. Before the project was initiated, Internet service in marine facilities varied from location to location, with many barracks only offering Wi-Fi in common and recreation areas.

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on quality of life in the military, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green noted that access to the Internet is a necessary part of everyday life.

"[Wi-Fi for Marines is] important because of where we are in society today," said Green. "Today all the students in all the universities have Wi-Fi, most homes have Wi-Fi, so we wanted Marines and our sailors to be up-to-date in technology. Family members living off post that are married and family members living in base housing have Wi-Fi, so we say that single Marines should live at the same standard."

Keeping Marines connected to home
The project will offer Marines a tiered service with a variety of price points and features. A basic package will provide servicemen with speeds of 128 kilobits per second free of charge. For an additional fee, users can opt into a variety of upgraded Internet and TV packages. Hourly, daily and weekly payment options will also be made available.

Once the rollout is complete, Marines who have signed up for accounts will be able to connect to more than 1 million hotspots around the world as well as their barrack locations. There are nearly 500 barracks currently equipped with Wi-Fi service, according to Chief Warrant Officer 3 Wesley Nelson, including the majority of facilities within the continental U.S. and Hawaii. Internet capabilities will periodically be installed in the remaining 229 barracks, with all facilities equipped with Wi-Fi by the end of the year.

"Offering a consistent Internet service allows Marines to stay connected to family," Nelson said. "Having one provider Marine Corps-wide eliminates the need to change providers when moving to a new command."

As mobile devices have become an increasingly important part of our daily lives and the Internet makes us feel more connected than ever, the ability to connect to Wi-Fi while away from home is a necessity for the average traveler. A variety of devices allow users to set up their own Wi-Fi networks wherever they’d like, providing constant, free access anywhere they go. This may not be the case in some hotel chains soon, however.

A variety of hotels, including Marriott International Inc., are appealing to the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to block the signals created by personal Wi-Fi devices so guests would have to use the in-house network inside conference halls and meeting spaces. While the group insists that they want to prevent other networks from being accessible in order to prevent criminals from tricking visitors into using phony networks that look like the hotel Wi-Fi, many opponents are crying foul.

Those who are against the proposal believe the move is being made to force guests to use the hotels’ networks, and in most cases have to pay the steep fees that come along with them.

“If a client arrives at a hotel with her own Mi-Fi device, and the hotel interferes with the client’s connection to that personal hotspot, the hotel can effectively force the client to purchase the hotel’s WiFi services to gain access, even though the client has already paid her mobile operator for personal hotspot capability,” said officials with Microsoft.

Hotels argue they should be able to block Wi-Fi signals to help security

Deciding between public and private airwaves
While the airwaves that have been set aside for use by television companies and cellphone service providers belong to a certain organization and require licenses to operate, the airwaves used by Wi-Fi networks utilize unlicensed frequencies that are meant to be available to anyone, like those that garage door openers and baby monitors use.

A law enforced by the FCC makes it very clear that no one is allowed to “willfully or maliciously” interfere with “any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized” by the government. Therefore, devices like signal jammers are strictly forbidden by the agency. The group of hotels argues that the law preventing the use of jammers should not apply to Wi-Fi because it doesn’t operate on a licensed spectrum. Furthermore, the group argues that a hotel jamming a signal is not maliciously interfering as it is attempting to “monitor and mitigate threats to the security and reliability of its network,” according to an FCC filing.

Earlier this month the Federal Communications Commission approved a measure that would increase consumer wireless service fees in order to subsidize a greater amount of the cost of Internet connectivity for public schools and libraries.

The E-Rate program was created in 1996 as a part of the Telecommunications Act in order to pay for improvements to school and library telecommunication services in disadvantaged areas. Currently the program receives $2.25 billion each year to provide Internet access to underserved school districts and communities. The FCC voted to increase funding for the program by $1.5 billion, bringing the total to nearly $4 billion. This is a major step forward in making Internet access available to every student, as the program's budget hasn't increased in almost a decade.

According to FCC estimates, the increased fees will only result in an additional $1.90 per year for each phone line, which comes out to less than $6 per household annually. In a statement, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said that increasing funding for the E-Rate program comes down to a moral issue:  ensuring all children are provided with the same advantages when it comes to their education. Wheeler added that while he can understand why there has been some opposition to the fee increase, he was "aghast at the hostility" directed at the commission's plan to improve access to critical technology for underprivileged students.

Part of the funding increase is being earmarked for the expansion of Wi-Fi coverage over the next few years. Increasing the reach of Internet access in underserved areas enables less privileged schools to provide 1:1 programs to their students and allow students who would otherwise be isolated from the Internet. 

Easing program requirements, increasing access
Along with an increase in funding, the FCC also passed multiple minor rule changes that provide different options for IT infrastructure and enable more institutions to benefit from the program. Schools and other educational organizations can now purchase a dark fiber infrastructure that allows them to build their own high-speed networks if that is a more cost-effective option than traditional operations. Carriers subsidized under the program are also now required to offer educational institutions in high cost rural areas similar rates to their urban counterparts.

School and library officials have expressed concern in recent years that the software and devices necessary to provide students with a modern education now cost more than can be covered with the available funds from the E-Rate program. Increasing the budget and refocusing the program's mission will help close the technology gap between schools, according to supporters.

New York City officials announced a $200 million plan this week to turn public payphones into Wi-Fi hot spots. The project, called LinkNYC, will transition the city's public payphone network into the world's largest and fastest free municipal Wi-Fi network. The thousands of payphones around New York City will be replaced with hubs that provide access to wireless Internet with speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.

Maya Wiley, counsel for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in an interview with CNET that LinkNYC will go a long way to provide Internet access to those without it. Wiley added that the program will be especially beneficial to lower income residents that rely on mobile connections to use the Internet in order to access city services.

New Wi-Fi program provides public service
The LinkNYC hubs will offer users free national phone calls, an embedded Android-capable tablet with access to directions and city services and charging stations. The tablet display will also be able to be used by the city to provide residents with emergency information or public service announcements. During Hurricane Sandy payphones became a critical resource for communication as many other avenues were disabled or jammed from high traffic. Residents will still be able to make emergency calls from the new Wi-Fi hubs and backup batteries will provide service for up to 24 hours in the event of an outage, The New York Times reported.

According to the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the LinkNYC Wi-Fi network will have speeds 100 times faster than the average municipal network and 20 times faster than what the average New Yorker would use at home. Someone using LinkNYC access would be able to download a 2-hour movie in 30 seconds, the Times reported.

The plan to transition New York's more than 6,000 payphones to Wi-Fi hot spots was initially conceived two years ago, and city has been beta-testing the project since then. The first 500 locations are expected to be ready for use by the end of next year, and the remaining sites will be completed within the next six years. The program won't cost anything for residents and the city expects to make much more from the new contract than it currently does from payphone franchisees, according to CNET contributor Ben Fox Rubin.

The project still needs to be approved by multiple city boards, but its outlook is optimistic and a developer has already been chosen to create the infrastructure.