Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Local Wi-Fi provider Telerama Wireless Corp. has broadened its reach to Seattle. The Shadyside-based Internet service provider launched 13 Wi-Fi "hot-spots" -- or wireless fidelity Internet access areas -- in Seattle coffee shops last week.

Chief Executive Officer Doug Luce also has relocated to Seattle to oversee the company's entree into the West Coast tech center. Luce, 35, who launched Telerama in 1991, said Pittsburgh would remain the company's headquarters, but that Seattle offered an opportunity for the company to demonstrate its mettle andvie for Wi-Fi against such larger competitors as T-mobile, AT&T Wireless and Cometa Networks.

"In a real way, Seattle is the Wi-Fi frontier," said Luce, whose wife and children have moved to Seattle with him. "Everyone who's serious about having national play has to prove their model works here." Telerama plans to penetrate Seattle's prolific coffeehouse culture by continuing to offer low-cost infrastructure and 33 percent of the revenue garnered from user fees. Rob Pell, Telerama's newly named director of operations, will oversee the Pittsburgh office in Luce's absence. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04090/293264.stm