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WiFi wants to be free


by: sonia

Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 10:24 PM CST


Some of that great divide just got smaller.

City to launch free Wi-Fi downtown
AAS Article
The City of Austin plans to create a high-speed wireless network that will deliver free broadband Internet access to parts of downtown Austin, East Austin and Zilker Park.

The city is partnering with Cisco Systems Inc., the largest maker of computer networking equipment, and the World Congress of Information Technology on the project. Cisco will donate nearly $700,000 worth of wireless-networking equipment for the new network to the group hosting WCIT, an international gathering of technology leaders in Austin in early May.

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But the network will live on. With Cisco's equipment and engineering assistance, the city's communications and technology management department and Austin Energy will build and maintain the network, which will deliver high-speed Internet access to attendees at the technology convention and, ultimately, to various city workers, the general public and to academic and private researchers.

Mayor Will Wynn said the network helps Austin in several ways, expanding broadband Internet access to more residents, helping city services do their jobs better and serving as a potential test laboratory for new wireless applications, services and companies.

This is absolutely great!  Austin needs to stay the most wired city in the state.  Wynn just sealed my vote.

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I agree (5.00 / 1)
...and I particularly like the decision to supply access to East Austin.  A follow-on step might be to conduct classes or community orientation sessions on the use of the internet.

That's the sort of thing I'd happily volunteer to help with.


Thanks for your comment, aerialist (0.00 / 0)
My first diary was sitting out here all alone with no comments.  I'm going to rate your comment a 5 for kindness.

And by the way, you do know about the Austin Wireless project don't you?



[ Parent ]
Only vaguely (0.00 / 0)
...though I've kinda resolved the wireless issue for myself these days.  I invested in a Kyocera KPC650 PCMCIA EVDO card that connects to the internet wirelessly through Verizon's high-speed service.

Deciphering all those acronyms, it is a removable card that slips into the side of my laptop and allows me to connect at broadband speeds anywhere in Austin that I am - also in dozens of other cities.

It even works while moving down the highway, and with certain computers (or a little more hardware) you can share the connection among multiple computers.

I shared such a connection with the redoubtable Karl-Thomas hisownself at a recent political event.

Outside the big cities, I get wireless internet connections at 2-3x the speed of good dialup.

The service is sort of pricey - $60 a month - but there's no limit on connection time. 


[ Parent ]
techno butt sniffing, hey? (0.00 / 0)
I always wanted to use that phrase in a blog post, ever since I heard it.  It's meant in a friendly way, you know.  I'll be the dog that bows on this one.  I'm not the hardware geek in my family, and I don't even pretend to play one on TV.  I'm fascinated by technology, but I'm not that savvy on it .  I do know that I love it.  Being a Sci-fi fan, I don't fear technology at all, except when the government is using it to spy on me.  Thankfully my hubby is the expert hardware geek. I probably know quite a bit just by tech exposure osmosis.

I have learned a few things on WANs, and I really think every city should move in that direction.  It's greedy corporations like SBC that try to stifle creativity and job creation potential, by trying to ban cities from offering broadband themselves.  This group did a good job of keeping up with the legislative agenda on broadband  savemuniwireless.org

On the volunteering issue, you should check out Austin Free-Net.  Good organization that always needs volunteers.  I did one short session with them.  I wish I had more time for them.


[ Parent ]
Great phrase (0.00 / 0)
...and I was asking for it.  I'm just a goggle-eyed kid over my new toy.

Someday, everybody will have broadband internet everywhere all the time and gadgets like my EVDO card will seem as quaint as stereopticons.


[ Parent ]
Thought I had put that URL in above (0.00 / 0)
Austin Wireless project:
www.austinwirelesscity.org

[ Parent ]
Thanks for the link (0.00 / 0)
I had no idea there were so many free hotspots now available in Austin.  The website doesn't say so specifically, but I assume they are all consistent in terms of procedures required to access the hotspot?

That was the biggest problem I found traveling around in years past - T-Mobile, I-Pass, Wayport, truck stops, coffee shops, hotels, airports, "free" spots...dozens of different  hotspots all requiring different login procedures and charging different rates.

I got pretty adept at figuring them out, but it was pretty tedious sometimes.


[ Parent ]
Yes, if they install the WiFi it's all the same (0.00 / 0)
I agree that making it easy and even better free, helps people to plug in.
Access wants to be free too.

[ Parent ]
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