Camden and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey are considering deploying a two-county WiFi zone that would serve over 800,000 people. Politicians from both counties believe building a wireless network makes sense because of the need and their geography, which is characterized by flat land without many big buildings interfering with wireless signals. Louis Capelli Jr.,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Municipal
Wi-Fi Cities May Fail To Realise Potential
BT’s Wireless City initiative hopes to make wireless data access pervasive in large U.K. cities such as Newcastle and Birmingham initially as well as six other city centers in the future. The program is limited to allowing local government employees and citizens access to local government content such as tourism information. It does not include… Continue Reading
Muni Wi-Fi – Survey May Not Be As Impartial As It Seems
A new report by the Reason Foundation warned cities from jumping into the Muni WiFi bandwagon. Jerry Ellig, author of “A Dynamic Perspective on Government Broadband Initiatives,” said municipalities should be wary of companies like EarthLink and Google, which he believes are only interested in offering free wireless Internet access “because the deals will give… Continue Reading
S.F. Nears WiFi Deal
Contract negotiations over a citywide wireless network in San Francisco is set to wrap up soon, according Chris Vein, who heads the city’s technology office. The city has already selected the joint venture of Google and Earthlink for the multi-million-dollar project. Under the deal, Earthlink will build and manage the 50-square-mile network, which will hold… Continue Reading
Google Requests Wi-Fi Perch
Google wants access to as many as 1,500 city light poles in San Francisco for its own test network and exclusive from the citywide WiFi network that it proposed to the city. Google’s project partner, EarthLink, voiced the search giant’s request to city officials, which it said is a condition for Google’s participation in the… Continue Reading
Bangalore Challenge Spurs Valley WiFi Discussion
The Wireless Silicon Valley task force is looking into plans by Bangalore to become “the second city in the world to be fully WiMax enabled.” Taiwan earlier claimed to be the first city providing its residents wireless connection anywhere, anytime. The subject of Wireless Silicon Valley’s discussion ensued from an article in Hindustan Times written… Continue Reading
The Politics Of San Francisco Wi-Fi
A report by the San Francisco Examiner suggested a possible vote by the city’s Board of Supervisors to make the citywide WiFi network part of the city’s owned assets. The move, if the board pushes through with it, would run in conflict with Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan to let a private company, particularly EarthLink, own… Continue Reading
RoamAD Wins Caribbean Wi-Fi Deal
RoamAD has won a contract to build a network that will eventually provide wireless Internet coverage to 1.17 million homes or 59 percent of the urban population in the Dominican Republic. The New Zealand wireless network builder signed an agreement with DR Telecom towards the development of a 2.4GHz network, which will initially blanket about… Continue Reading
Downtown Bellevue Is Getting A Wi-Fi Network
The city of Bellevue in Washington is deploying a WiFi network in the downtown area. Once installed, the network will initially extend over a 1.5-acre area from City Hall and Meydenbauer Center on the east to Bellevue Square and the Downtown Park on the west. Eventually, according to Bellevue Information Technology Manager David Kerr, the… Continue Reading
US Leads The Way For Free Wi-Fi Access
Foster City in California is offering free wireless Internet connection to its 29,000 residents. The scheme, which the city began implementing in early October, aims to lower costs and improve public services. MetroFi built the network and signed a service level agreement that would allow anyone owning a WiFi-enabled device to use the service. Foster… Continue Reading
New Orleans To Take City-wide WiFi Network Offline
New Orleans will shut down its city-wide WiFi network once EarthLink’s system becomes operational either later this year or by early 2007. The current network delivers a speed of 128 Kbps, with equipment supplied by Intel, Tropos Networks, and Pronto Networks to help the city restore its communications infrastructure following the devastation caused by Hurricane… Continue Reading
Citywide Wi-Fi Spending Could Hit $3 Billion
A new report by MuniWireless.com indicates that U.S. municipalities will invest over $3 billion in public wireless networks over the next four years. MuniWireless.com founder Esme Vos ascribed the trend to increasing interest among cities and counties to develop their own wireless networks, which are either managed by them alone or in collaboration with a… Continue Reading
Canadian Town Gets WiMax
Despite being a small town, Hanna in Alberta, Canada is home to six WiMax towers. The facilities, which comprise Nortel base stations and customer premises gear (or subscriber stations) with radios based on the IEEE 802.16d fixed WiMax standard, were installed by Netago Wireless. The company offers subscribers various data plans, with uplink speeds ranging… Continue Reading
Motorola: Metro Wi-Fi’ll Never Happen
Juan Santiago, senior director of product management at Motorola, believes Metro WiFi is a futile attempt to bring WiFi outdoors. Such is the case because Metro WiFi in unlicensed, free and, various devices create too much interference to allow it to work properly. Such venture will also fail because operating an outdoor WiFi is too… Continue Reading
Wireless Internet For All, Without The Towers
Meraki Networks is testing a WiFi network that aims to provide affordable wireless Internet connection. In several neighborhoods, the Mountain View, California-based start-up has installed $49 boxes, which is equipped with a Wi-Fi router-on-a-chip and software that supports a “mesh network”. This network redirects signals when boxes are removed or added and when network performance… Continue Reading