New Infrastructure: Citywide Wireless
Wow, Philly is really making a push to utilize new technologies. Via the NY Times: Philadelphia Hopes for a Lead in the Wireless Race.
If Mayor John F. Street has his way, by next year this 135-square-mile metropolis will become one gigantic wireless hot spot, offering every neighborhood high-speed access to the Web at below-market prices in what would be the largest experiment in municipal Internet service in the country.
City officials envision a seamless mesh of broadband signals that will enable the police to download mug shots as they race to crime scenes in their patrol cars, allow truck drivers to maintain Internet access to inventories as they roam the city, and perhaps most important, let students and low-income residents get on the net.
Experts say the Philadelphia model, if successful, could provide the tipping point for a nationwide movement to make broadband affordable and accessible in every municipality. From tiny St. Francis, Kan., to tech-savvy San Francisco, more than 50 local governments have already installed or are on the verge of creating municipal broadband systems for the public.
But Philadelphia’s plan has prompted a debate over who should provide the service, and whether government should compete with private industry, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas or low-income urban communities. Telecommunications and cable companies say that municipal Internet networks will not only inhibit private enterprise, but also result in poor service and wasted tax dollars. They have mounted major lobbying campaigns in several states to restrict or prohibit municipalities from establishing their own networks.
I think this is a great idea. Living in the number one city for Wi-Fi connectivity, I find this to be a key to modern communication. There is a group here in Portland that started setting up entire Wi-Fi hotspot areas in various sections of town and they are growing by the day. They’ve actually gotten smaller in focus, lately, and have been courting apartment buildings in the outlying areas, but within the city it is almost impossible to find an area you can’t just connect to and fly away. It’s pretty cool.
Cas, is there a fee to use the wireless network? Is it a public or private venture? I’d like to know more.
Devon, I think it depends on which network you’re jumping on.
Some offices have unprotected networks so visiting clients can access without too many loops some don’t. Coffee shops usually lock theirs down so a user must pay a fee and obviously as stated in the article a lot of municipalities, libraries, etc… are opening Wi-Fi to the public for free.
It’s only a matter of time before our taxes are paying for wireless access. The only problem I can see is limiting speeds through sharing. The more people that login the slower the system goes…
Soon we’ll all be living in the matrix so what’s it matter…
I just re-read Cas’ post and realized he’s talking about a specific group that I’m not familiar with… Sorry about that.
We have free wi-fi all over the place here. i thought it was getting to be that way everywhere? i think the Borders in Birmingham has it.
All that I know, which is not much, I picked up from an in-flight magazine I read on a Southwest flight. I’ve been trying to find information since that point that would be more clear and concise. What I did get from the article is that in certain areas of Portland, namely the SW Downtown area, SE communities, and the NW Pearl and Nob Hill districts, there are wireless hubs installed to create free hotspots so that even while waiting for the bus or the MAX you can email or surf the Internet. Many coffee shops and pubs offer the service as well and I believe most of them provide it free of charge. Its pretty sweet. This effort has led Intel to name Portland the #1 WiFi hotspot in the U.S.
Here’s a link to a story that ran last week describing Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s vision of a countywide wireless service.
more information on this story, & why the CATO institute is opposed, here:
http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-york-times-swings-late-and-misses.html
Excellent article. Thanks Kimberleigh.