Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz said Monday that beginning July 1, the coffee king will offer free WiFi in all company-owned stores. This is a change from the current policy, which allows two free hours to customers with a registered SBUX card, or free unrestricted service for AT&T (T) customers.

Not only will the surfing be free, but SBUX-based users will have access to a free version of The Wall Street Journal, content from Zagats, and a free "pick of the week" iTunes download. Not too shabby. Why bother paying for service at home?

This move makes sense, of course, and was a long time coming, as SBUX has to keep up with its competitors. Panera Bread (PNRA) has offered free WiFi for years; so do most McDonald's (MCD).

Kirkland, Wash. based Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) closed on a transaction in December which merged the Sprint/Nextel (NYSE: S) wireless Internet business with the WiMax business of CLWR.

In connection with the transaction, CLWR secured $3.2 billion from a group of investors linked to the development of the wireless broadband industry, including Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWX).

Clearwater is offering its broadband service under the label "Clear."

While operating in a competitive environment for WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), CWTR has an advantage over WiFi, which is limited to access in small areas, such as home or coffee shop. WiMax, on the other hand, offers access from a very broad area and while being mobile in a vehicle.

Though not as capitalized as competitors like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) or AT&T (NYSE: T), the company's relationship with its investors should give it access to capital when needed.

On Jan. 9, due to a significant drop in the market value of CLWR stock, Intel announced a writedown of its investment in CLWR of $950 million. Intel is only the first of the investment group to reflect this writedown in their guidance for the quarter.

Driven by accounting rules mandating that investments in stocks that decline significantly in value be written off, the other publicly traded companies with investments in CLWR will be required to follow suit.

In the face of these writedowns, investors have kept the price of CLWR depressed in spite of recent good news from the company. At around $4.60, the stock is trading near its 52-week low of $3.24, and well below its high of $7.20.

The company's balance sheet reflects its growth mode, with a long-term debt-to-equity ratio of 186 and a current ratio of 3.25.

In the tech world, it can be difficult to get cheap valuations on M&A deals. But, with the tightening of the VC market and a lousy IPO space, things are opening up. Perhaps this is a reason AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) announced it is purchasing Wayport, which is a major WiFi services company. The price tag: $275 million.

With the transaction, AT&T gets about 20,000 domestic hotspots (making the total more than 80,000). Some of the new accounts include the Wyndham and Four Seasons hotels, as well as McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD).

Mobility is pervasive -- and customers expect to get Net access anytime, anywhere. So, the Wayport deal is a good move for AT&T to stay ahead of the curve. Last year, for example, about 300 million WiFi-enabled devices were shipped. And, by 2021, the figure is expected to reach one billion.

It is the dream of almost every mobile PC users that at some point the broadband airwaves will be free. No more connecting to one expensive WiFi service at one airport only to have to pay for another at the next stop. No more expensive 3G service.

The day may be coming. According to The Wall Street Journal, a new FCC "report clears the way for the FCC to move forward with a plan to auction off airwaves to a bidder who agrees to offer free, national wireless Internet service."

Although the study indicates that most wireless carriers will not be hurt by the program, that is almost certainly not true. By many estimates the free service will be available to 50% of the US population in four years.

The new plan may well do some significant damage to major cellular and WiFi providers. Free is free, and $59 a month can be expensive. How many people will opt to pay for service when they don't need to?

The other industries that could experience some level of harm are the cable companies and telecoms, which offer wired broadband to the home. A good wireless alternative may allow some people to cancel those services.

The FCC regulates the wireless and wired communications companies. Now it means to undermine them.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

These days in commercial aviation, airlines are finding ways to operate more efficiently amid the toughest sector conditions since the first oil shock in 1973-74.

And while there's no love lost between passengers and the major carriers' unconventional way of increasing total consumer flying costs by adding separate baggage fees, there's one a-la-carte fee the public may be willing to pay for: a fee for internet access on airplanes.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) announced it will start offering broadband internet service on domestic flights as early as October, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Other airlines, including Continental (NYSE: CAL), Southwest (NYSE: LUV), and Virgin America are planning or testing internet services. (Delta will merge with Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA), pending U.S. Justice Department approval.)

Analysts generally credit JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) with raising coach class amenity standards for flights in the United States when it introduced satellite TV and other services on its flights.

Delta's service will cost a $9.95 flat fee for flights lasting three hours or less and $12.95 for flights longer than three hours.

Public seen receptive to Wi-Fi fee

Stock analyst and frequent flier C. Leonard Bauer says Internet fees would be "a lucrative revenue stream" for the airlines, and ironically one that will probably be popular with the public.

Finally! Needing a place to park with your laptop but too far from a Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA)? Finally, you can enjoy the soothing environment of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) for free ... well, for the price of a latte or two. The coffee king of Seattle is ending its Wi-Fi partnership with T-Mobile and linking up with AT&T (NYSE: T). The new deal is expected to roll out gradually beginning this spring.

The new plan, while not perfect, is certainly better for those of us who want to pop in for a quick email check or blog update. It provides each customer with 2 free hours of WiFi service per day, with additional 2-hour blocks available for $3.99. Monthly subscriptions will cost $19.99 and provide access to AT&T hotspots in other locations in addition to Starbucks branches.

If you are already an AT&T broadband customer, you are eligible for free Internet access at more than 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S.

Still in need of WiFi that's free all day, every day, regardless of your at-home broadband provider? Look for your closest Panera, or use an online Wi-Fi hot spot finder that can direct you to local coffee shops, book stores, and even gas stations that have the service.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

It's been a good week for Wi-Fi startup Meraki. First of all, the company raised a cool $20 million in venture capital. Investors included Sequoia Capital, DAG Venture and Northgate Capital.

What's more, Meraki says it will offer free high-speed wireless Net access throughout San Francisco. No doubt, the announcement is getting a lot of buzz.

But what does this really mean? I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, the author of Good Fight for Municipal Wireless. According to him:

"It is vitally important that people realize Meraki is NOT making this service available for free elsewhere. People have to pay for the hardware and individuals have to step up to provide DSL or some other high-speed landline access for some of these repeaters. Meraki is doing what EarthLink -- along with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) -- should have done, that is, use the big, high-profile city as a marquee account, but sell the service to everyone else. Don't get sucked into the 'free' hype.

This week, EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK) continued its moves to restructure operations. The new initiative? Well, it is to explore "strategic alternatives" for its municipal Wi-Fi business. In other words, the company is looking for a buyer for the division.

To get a perspective on things, I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, an expert on muni Wi-Fi and the author of Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless.

According to him:

"The only ones who see this announcement as a cause for pause - whether detractors or supporters of municipal broadband - are people who continue to be distracted by the concept of muni networks as a consumer-centric application. Those of us who've said since 2006 that these networks' viable business case lies with local governments and businesses looking to improve operations understand that this is a logical progression for EarthLink. EarthLink could very well unveil services that position it to meet these needs.

Frequently, the difference between a successful investor and one less so is all timing. Making money in the market requires not only picking the right companies to invest in, but also deciding when (or when not) to invest in such companies.

I rediscovered Earthlink (NASDAQ: ELNK) last year while running a value screen. Like many stocks that end up in the proverbial value barrel, this company was once a high flier, trading at a split-adjusted $50, while now trading around $8. There were highs and lows, culminating in Earthlink's founder being charged with fraud and money laundering. I recalled that Earthlink was in the now-dying dial-up ISP business during the bubble days of the internet and decided to dig a little deeper.

What I saw, when I looked under the hood, caught my attention. While Earthlink was indeed seeing dial-up customers dial-out of their contracts, Earthlink was converting a good percentage of these customers to DSL service. It was working well -- while the company wasn't growing much, it was producing a lot of cash from operations and instead of just building a cash horde, like many companies would do in a situation like this, the company was looking to reposition itself with two major, seemingly sexy initiatives.

Sprint (NYSE: S) is planning to build its next-generation wireless broadband platform based on WiMax technology, a sort of "WiFi on steroids," which can cover many miles from one base station. To save costs, it was going to create a network to reach over 100 million people in the US by sharing costs with WiMax start-up Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR). Sprint is about to walk away from that deal [subscription required], leaving the future of WiMax in the US in question.

Sprint had said it would devote $5 billion to creating its WiMax network. Clearwire was projected to spend nearly as much, although it has not given out a firm number. Without adequate cash on hand, the smaller company was probably going to have to go into the debt markets to build its war chest. That would almost certainly have hurt the company's shares. Splitting the cost load with Sprint seemed like an ideal solution.

According to The Wall Street Journal "any slowdown in the rollout of WiMax by either Clearwire or Sprint would negatively affect companies that are backing the technology" such as Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT). The paper adds "some of those companies may try to inject financing into Clearwire to help keep its WiMax project on track, people familiar with the matter said."

WiMax was to challenge the big 3G networks of AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless and help resurrect a troubled Sprint. All of that appears to be in jeopardy now, as are the prospects of WiMax in the US.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) is a WiMax provider that offers wireless broadband systems throughout the world. This stock has been on my watchlist for quite a while with its very attractive balance sheet and positioning in a growth 'sweet-spot.' When the stock received an upgrade today it caught my attention.

The analyst covering the stock, Richard Church of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, upgraded the stock because it's "the best-positioned pure-play on wireless broadband adoption and should see significant growth as WiMax gains traction." On the news of this upgrade Alvarion rose about 6%.

Is now the time to jump into Alvarion? Truthfully, the stock remains very speculative despite the coming growth in the WiMax space and the company has struggled to increase its revenues in recent times (revenues in 2006, 2007 and TTM are all roughly the same). Despite it's very nice balance sheet (nearly $2 per share in cash, no debt), I'd have to argue that it's worth sitting on the sidelines until convincing signs of growth appear to justify the stocks current valuation of more than 3x sales.

Surging since it received purchase orders for WiFiber links from two international resellers, standout small cap Gigabeam Corp. (NASDAQ: GGBM) continued its climb Monday, heading more than 17% higher.

GGBM shares have moved 42% higher over the past 11 days, most recently on news of a purchase order for two WiFiber links from a reseller for the Saudi government last Friday. GGBM closed Friday's regular trading session $0.2799 higher at $4.3499, a gain of 6.88%. The stock continued its ascent after hours, rising 72 cents to $5.07.

It has reached as high as $5.7601 during today's regular trading session, though it still sits well short of its April 2006 high of $13.80.

It's been a summer of high demand for Gigabeam's WiFi services -- two weeks ago it soared after the announcement of a purchase order from South African reseller InnovatIF Telecoms. Shortly before that was the announcement that Herndon, Va.-based One Velocity purchased orders for 24 WiFiber links.

Last summer, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) told the world that it had chosen WiMAX technology to power its next-generation wireless data network in order for it to provide cutting-edge voice, data and multimedia features to its customers in the near future. While most of America is still getting newer 3G wireless data services (mostly from AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless), the needs to fast-as-lightning access to data anywhere nationwide continues to be a priority for millions of road warriors and regular citizens alike.

I know that when I travel, wireless internet (WiFi) is not always available when I need a fast internet connection. But a cellular signal is almost always available, anywhere. Solution? I hook that laptop to the cellphone and start plugging away at the keyboard. That $50/month wireless data subscription is invaluable in situations like this. My only gripe -- speeds could be a bit faster. We are, after all, in 2007. With all the talk of nationwide WiFi, we are far (far) from it.

So, it came as a sigh of relief when Sprint Nextel disclosed that it would power its "4G" network with WiMAX technology (maybe it would find its way into laptop designs, I thought). Sprint Nextel must be ultra-serious about its ambitions nationwide WiMAX plans, since rumors are flying that it's possibly looking at a spinoff of its WiMAX operations [subscription required] -- or even a joint partnership with the other national WiMAX operator (which has an operational network right now), Clearwire (founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw). I really doubt that Sprint's WiMAX plans will be an expensive flop, but investors have that fear (naturally). Therefore, talk of a spinoff surfaced. If there was a nationwide, high-speed wireless internet network available for a decent price, I doubt Sprint Nextel would have a problem recruiting customers -- but perhaps I'm wrong.

via TeleGeography

In July 2006 I posted Google should buy Starbucks -- NOW! and received many less than favorable comments. I was way too glib in my post and that took away from the serious points I was trying to make. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is still a one-trick pony. Yes, they bought YouTube but they are far from generating profits from that. They paid $1.65 billion for this acquisition and contracted with News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace (TM) for another $900 million in a collaborative effort, and spent millions more on legal matters, further site development costs. All told they are probably approaching $3 billion in cost for these two deals, and will carry losses until some future date when they make some money, but so far what have they done?

They are making some money with Google CheckOut (TM), a quasi PayPal (TM) competitor owned by Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) but nothing to write home about. Googles other initiatives amount to offerings that are all "me too" add ons that dilute the Internet further but add nothing new. If gmail did not exist people would not be missing much and that can be said for many other things they have explored.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is about to purchase 13 hotels from All Nippon Airways for about $1.2B, doubling the number of hotels the investment bank owns there, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• The Financial Times reported that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced it would delay shipping its new Leopard operating system until October, due to the summer launch of its iPhone.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the New York Times, citing people briefed on the discussions, Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM) is in talks to be acquired by private equity for more than $20B.
• The Guardian reported that exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky is planning the "violent overthrow of [Russian] President Putin".
• The New York Post reported that Dubai is looking at buying Jones Apparel Group Inc's (NYSE: JNY) Barneys New York for $950M. Contrary to previous reports, the suitor is not linked to Qatar's royal family, but is Istithmar, a private equity firm owned by the Dubai government.

WEBSITES:

• According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple has plans to release new iPods with Wi-Fi, reported DigiTimes.com.