A few weeks ago I wrote about efforts in Lafayette, Louisiana to create a municipal WiFi network for their town. It seems that the idea of WiFi for the masses is growing, according to this Time Magazine article.
TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine — Welcome to Wi-Fi-Ville Pop. 300 towns and growing:
Municipal wi-fi will be coming soon to a city near you, from tiny towns like Adel, Ga., to sprawling locales like Boston and San Francisco. Municipalities are promoting competition to drive down broadband prices and bring high-speed access to rural areas stuck with dial-up. Big telcos such as Verizon and AT&T, having first tried to fend off wi-fi in state legislatures, have also joined the battle to own and operate these systems. More than 300 communities nationwide plan to have wireless ventures in the next year, according to MuniWireless.com a portal on city projects. Several dozen small cities–including Corpus Christi; Tempe, Ariz.; and Chaska, Minn.– already have full-blown systems in use. If 2006 was the year of making deals, 2007 promises to be the year of going live.
Questions remain.
..Big questions remain: What will consumers pay for citywide access? Will advertising sustain free models? And will users really be attracted to a network that lacks speed, security and privacy? The risks are considerable–up to $25 million in capital costs per system plus operating funds. “Half the cities run into funding barriers,” says Peter Orne, Wireless Internet Institute’s editorial director. “We’re still waiting for an unqualified big-city success.”
Technorati Tags: warlick technology wifi
David…the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick has had a FREE wifi network for citizens and visitors since 2003! “Fred-e-zone” covers most of the city and airport. It was developed for wireless communication by city employees, but the municipality promoted it’s public use as well…
From the release in 2003…
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Like streetlights and sidewalks, Fred-eZone is municipal infrastructure. Today, coverage extends throughout the downtown business district, City parks, local arenas, business hotels, Kings Place Mall, and the Fredericton Mall. With plans for Fred-eZone expansion in place, the future will see coverage extended to include all of the City’s business corridors and public spaces. Wi-Fi is the next big thing in networking. It is now available throughout Fredericton for you to use – free of charge!
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Yes…this means that many city residents who live in the central areas have FREE wireless briadband access…what is THAT worth!…:)
Read more at http://www.fred-ezone.com/
Dave,
The town of Orleans MA has a free-access blanket over the town (http://www.unwiredvillage.com/pages/index.php)
We don’t use it for the schools, for obvious security reasons. The log-on is similar to a hotel log-on with an agreement and such. The tourists love it in the summertime, the downtown merchants love it, and the rest of of us think it is pretty neat, too.
I am not sure how it will be funded once the grant is over, but for now, long live free wireless Internet access!
Kathy
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