NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

2007 Top Projects in the North Bay Reception and Awards Gala

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Sheraton Sonoma County, Petaluma

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Sonic.net equips Airport Express buses with Wi-Fi

TWO NEWER COACHES, ‘JAKE’ AND ‘OWEN,’ WIRED, KEEPING RIDERS CONNECTED

SANTA ROSA – The two-hour ride down Hwy 101 to the airport is no longer a dead spot in the day for passengers on some Airport Express buses.

Sonic.net has installed Wi-Fi on the newest, most heavily used coaches, and it's a big hit with riders, said Tony Geraldi, general operations manager for Airport Express in Santa Rosa.

"We've been testing it out for about a week and a half and already about 100 riders have used it. They pull out laptops, BlackBerrys, cell-phones, you name it."

Local Internet service provider Sonic.net founder and President Dane Jasper is providing the hook-up for no fee in the hope of winning new customers for his DSL, dial-up and wireless access services.

"I've already gotten e-mail wanting to know when the whole Express fleet will be equipped," said Mr. Jasper. That'll probably be in three to six weeks, if riders continue to be enthusiastic, he said.

Right now, two of 20 buses in the Airport Express fleet are wired for Wi-Fi. But “Jake” and “Owen” -– all the buses are named for the owners' grandchildren and cartoon characters – are the newest, largest coaches, making six round trips a day to San Francisco and Oakland airports.

"When Dane came to us with the idea, we thought it was a great way to contribute to the experience of visitors and residents," said Mr. Geraldi. "There are a lot of high-tech companies in the area and high-tech buses seem very appropriate."

Like open-air Wi-Fi spaces, the buses allow users about a half a megabit each, plenty of broadband for viewing YouTube and other video material. Users that have a VPN connection to their corporate sites can do high-level work in an encrypted, secure environment, or use banking and bill-paying services, according to Mr. Jasper.

"If they're Sonic.net customers, they automatically get a VPN connection," he said.

Sonic.net has already installed Wi-Fi connections at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, downtown Santa Rosa, the Santa Rosa Junior College, Windsor Town Green and downtown Petaluma. In the works are the Petaluma basin and the entire Petaluma airport area.

"Wi-Fi was slow to catch on because using it meant you had to haul around a heavy laptop," said Mr. Jasper. "But now, 50 percent of Internet users are on smart phones. Already there are 1.4 million iPhones in use. Wi-Fi is really going to take off and Sonic.net wants to be the provider."

Sonic.net will earn a small percentage of ad revenue from the Google ads on its Wi-Fi users’ search pages and Web sites. But the main payback for the ISP is the prominent Sonic.net name on the screen. Airport Express has put it on the back of the buses as well.

Santa Rosa-headquartered, 90-employee Sonic.net is the largest independent ISP in Northern California, with 30,714 subscribers and a DSL network that covers 80 percent of the state, including Southern California. The company also offers domain hosting and data storage.

Meanwhile, for San Francisco and Oakland airport users who want to surf 'n ride, the buses Jake and Owen depart the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport at 6:15 a.m., 7:15 a.m., 2:15 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 8:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

"We hope the knowledge that they can be productive or entertained for two hours will persuade some people who drive to the airports to get out of their cars and ride the bus," said Mr. Geraldi.