Sounds like Toledo will be falling behind the times again.
posted by lloyd at 05:57 P.M. EST on Mon May 08, 2006 #
Sounds like Toledo will be falling behind the times again.
huh what? Toledo's already so far behind that the tow rope is in danger of breaking.
posted by anonymouscoward at 08:54 P.M. EST on Mon May 08, 2006 #
As long as not one public penny is used for a wifi cloud, go ahead and make one. You hardly need much government involvement at all. With Bribe McCloskey now gone, you don't have to worry about greasing a palm in Toledo. Of course, there's still the Carty Ego Factor (CEF) -- any significant lanuch of a wifi cloud done in Toledo will have to be credited to Carty (apparently quite the little fisherman, as I've been hearing).
posted by GuestZero at 09:21 P.M. EST on Mon May 08, 2006 #
AC,
You know more about computers than I do, but it seems like I heard these cities are having trouble getting the WiFi signal indoors. I'm specifically thinking of Philly's network. According to what I watched the people basically have to be on their front porch or front yard to receive the signal.
So while a lot of this sounds good, if it's not penetrating the walls of buildings it isn't going to do that well.
posted by HeyHey at 12:19 A.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
I'm sure antennas can alter the equation. I read about the "Flatenna" in http://www.tritium.co.uk/Press%20Release.htm. I can only imagine that doubling the range of a wifi cloud will double the power available at the prior range.
posted by GuestZero at 02:14 P.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
From Muniwireless.com
Assume you have a citywide Wi-Fi cloud and lots of people with laptops and Wi-Fi enabled PDAs or phones. That’s a lot of people who can be online at any time visiting web pages, doing Google searches, calling on Skype, etc. Without that cloud, those people would not be online. In other words, the number of “moments” for people to do a local search using Google Maps or a Google keyword search has just been increased dramatically by the presence of a Wi-Fi cloud.
Now assume that you are the ISP that provides citywide Wi-Fi access. What if Google could see that the people who are clicking on the ads (or doing the local searches) come from you, and give you a cut of the ad revenue? The more users you have, the more ad revenue. It gives you an incentive to offer Wi-Fi access for free to as many people.
Take this one step further. Doesn’t this give a district filled with boutiques, cafes, cinemas, hotels, restaurants and other businesses an incentive to create a Wi-Fi cloud that is free of charge (to get everyone online and increase the number of local search “moments”)? Those businesses have an incentive to put up a mesh node on their premises to enable a provider of free Wi-Fi access to create a Wi-Fi cloud. And they would want this cloud to be as wide as possible (covering the entire city).
This could be a way to grow a citywide wireless broadband network organically without the central (slow) organizing authority of the city and without having to get permission to mount nodes on city property. This gets around state laws that prohibit municipalities from deploying broadband networks.
posted by KraZyKat at 03:36 P.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
I was out of town a few weeks ago and got the chance to use another community's free municipal WiFi system and after that experience, I'd rather pay a nominal fee for WiFi access in order for it to be supported 24-7. The network I was connecting to was pretty much inaccessable during evening hours and when you could get on, the signal would cut out every 5-10 minutes. The only time it was usable was during the afternoon, and even then it was unreliable. Toward the end of my vacation, I had given up on the WiFi network entirely and resorted to dialup.
IIRC, Buckeye Express customers have access to their WiFi hotspots included with their monthly bills, so a BEX sponsored and supported WiFi cloud downtown and along the river would be great idea in my opinion. Those who don't have Buckeye service or who meet certain income requirements could pay for WiFi only or receive subsidized WiFi access. What good is having a WiFi network if it's never up?
posted by thenick at 04:05 P.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
KraZyKat - would love for you to take a look at the "net neutrality" post and comment on how that might impact your idea...
posted by MaggieThurber at 04:55 P.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
IIRC, Buckeye Express customers have access to their WiFi hotspots included with their monthly bills, so a BEX sponsored and supported WiFi cloud downtown and along the river would be great idea in my opinion. Those who don't have Buckeye service or who meet certain income requirements could pay for WiFi only or receive subsidized WiFi access. What good is having a WiFi network if it's never up?
Well, it's a sure thing that if Toledo set up WiFi, Buckeye would throw a hissy unless they were the ones doing it. Philadelphia went through hell with Verizon fighting tooth and nail against it because Earthlink was going to do it. So you can bet Block will be in Carty's office if Toledo does anything.
posted by anonymouscoward at 05:34 P.M. EST on Tue May 09, 2006 #
Maggie..
to avoid cross-commenting, please view my comments to the net-neutrality posting
posted by KraZyKat at 08:58 A.M. EST on Wed May 10, 2006 #
thanks, KraZyKat!
posted by MaggieThurber at 11:23 A.M. EST on Wed May 10, 2006 #
"Interest in citywide Wi-Fi networks has exploded in the past year, with cities including Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago planning to blanket their cities with wireless Internet access."
"But early deployments in cities, such as Tempe, Ariz., and St. Cloud, Fla., are resulting in contractors being required to deploy more access points than had been originally planned and subscribers being forced to attach signal boosters to their homes to get Internet access inside."
"San Jose, Calif.-based Wavion, which is backed by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, says it has developed software and silicon that not only increase the transmission distance of a Wi-Fi signal, but also alleviate much of the signal loss so that fewer people need to deploy signal boosters."
"Wavion solves these issues by using a version of MIMO or multiple input and multiple output technology, which uses multiple antenna to send and receive several data streams over the same channel simultaneously. He said Wavion's technology doubles the range of wireless signals from 600 feet, which is typical of gear from companies such as Tropos Networks, to 1,200 to 1,500 feet."
"The increased range means that three to four times fewer access points are needed to blanket cities, which reduces costs by at least 50 percent. The technology also reduces signal loss, which is important for reaching users inside their homes."
posted by jr at 07:26 P.M. EST on Tue May 23, 2006 #
From PaidContent.org:
"North Carolina Paper Will Provide Free Local WiFi; Plans Paid WiMax"
"I’ve seen a lot of WiFi models lately but this appears to be the first from a local newspaper."
"The Pilot, which covers Pinehurst and several other communities in North Carolina, will provide free WiFi across Moore County. Publisher David Woronoff explains: “The Pilot’s mission is to serve Moore County and we think the technology has advanced to the point that we can help bind the community together in a dynamic and compelling way with The Pilot’s products and Internet service.” They’ve acquired WiFi equipment, hired a GM and will start the rollout with a transmitter on their own building in Southern Pines. This isn’t a value add for print subscribers — it will be accessible to readers and non-readers."
More from The Pilot article:
"What WiFi means to anyone in the coverage area is free Internet access without wires, Harris said. Coupled with the WiFi service, the newspaper is making a push to revitalize its online operations."
"A revamped Web site is scheduled to debut in early July, with Web-exclusive podcasts, community-oriented Web logs (blogs) and multimedia projects, among many other additions. The newspaper has already begun moving to become more of an around-the-clock news source for the area, with constant updates online."
"ThePilot.com has averaged about 5,000 unique visitors every day this year. Those readers view, on average for the year, some 23,000 pages per day. "The online push has energized The Pilot's staff, providing new and exciting tools to tell the community's stories," Editor Steve Bouser said. "We're determined to think about The Pilot as more than a newspaper. It's an information portal. The main thing readers will notice is that there'll be lots of opportunities online to dig deeper into stuff they'll read in the paper."
"Later in the year, the newspaper will launch a fee-based high-speed wireless broadband network to complement the WiFi network."
posted by jr at 02:15 P.M. EST on Fri Jun 30, 2006 #
Blade? Free anything?
posted by anonymouscoward at 04:09 P.M. EST on Fri Jun 30, 2006 #
I wrote the metroparks way back about putting in a few hot spots in the parks large open areas.
Put up a sign, promote Buckeye Express-it would be great PR, have a local computer store put in a router, put thier name on the sign. Make the login iheartjohnblock, whatever it's free. Filter the hell out of it, keep away the raincoat types.
Got a reply from the parks mentioning they'd bring it up, that was the end of that. Don't hold your breath.
posted by Bruno at 09:23 A.M. EST on Sat Jul 01, 2006 #
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