Phil Lief and Eric Fidler are entrepreneurs. Their company,Tangerine Unwired, deals with the security of wireless networks.

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Internet 'Free Zone' In Bethesda

They have set up a free wireless Internet in a busy section of Bethesda. It's called a freespot.

They pay for a DSL connection located at the Thyme Square Cafe, then broadcast Internet access through an antenna on top of the Cafe:

"You can go down here to the end of the block to Elm Street and you can go up here about half the block and even in the parking lot you can get it," says Eric Fidler of Tangerine Unwired. That means you can surf wirelessly for roughly a 4 block area if you have a laptop or handheld computer with a wireless card (802.11(b).

When you sign onto the network, a brief "splash screen comes" up, with a few ads. "DSL lines don't pay for themselves we do have a splash page which has 4 small ads, and that pretty much pays off equally the cost of the DSL line," says Fidler

A growing number of coffee shops and airport areas offer wireless Internet for a fee. They're called hotspots. Freespots, as the name implies, are free. Their numbers are growing on the west coast, and are just getting started in the East. Why is this startup offering free Internet. Phil Lief is Eric Fidler's partner in Tangerine Unwired. "It's really a public service. We liked the dissemination of free accessed information. It's cutting edge and it's also been a good learning experience."

Phil And Eric plan to talk to other business in Bethesda to extend the service, encouraging merchants to buy what are essentially repeaters to spread the free access over a wider area.

Groups like DC Wireless and Capital Area Wireless are trying to create more freespots across the DC area. One area under consideration is Dupont Circle.