Selling city halls on wireless as a utility
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City leaders don't need to be convinced of the benefits of high-bandwidth networks. Convincing them to pay for it is another matter.
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The computing giant is stepping up its wireless efforts through partnerships, looking to sell to municipalities, hospitals and colleges.
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Businesses looking to deploy wireless LANs will soon have an alternative to installing access points on the ceiling. Aruba Wireless Networks, a Wi-Fi systems vendor, and Ortronics Inc.
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You could soon surf the internet and make a cell phone call from the air. The Federal Communications Commission is now open to the possibility.
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By Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe  Jun. 9--Boston's plan to blanket the city with wireless Internet  connections is set to pick up speed this month as companies jockey to play a  role and a pilot WiFi project gets underway in a square-mile area of the Grove  Hall neighborhood.
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Reuters has a story  about Gavin Newsom finally getting wifi and wanting to hookup San Francisco:  "SAN FRANCISCO  - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has set a goal of providing free wireless Internet activity in his city that sees itself as a vanguard of the Internet revolution."  ""We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service," he said in his annual state of the city address on Thursday. "These technologies will connect our residents to the skills and the jobs of the new economy."  The issue I have is that I'm not sure my tax dollars need to pay for this.  I'm also pretty sure that the city will screw it up.  Why not just do this.  Allow ...
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By The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson  Jun. 1--The idea of creating a low-cost wireless Internet network across  Tucson has great appeal, but we urge city leaders to make sure that the system  will, first and foremost, work well, and, secondly, be used by residents.
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Chip maker wants you to know about the benefits of a wireless network.
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Control of the UK's radio spectrum is being handed to the business community to promote wireless services.
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A prospective buyer says the early municipal Wi-Fi service could have thousands more subscribers.
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Are we ready for the all-wireless enterprise? Columnist Craig Mathias says results from testing he observed at a company considering such a move are quite encouraging, but most companies will still need to rely on wire to some extent.
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New technologies wirelessly transmit high-definition video.
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Meat wagons hitched to wireless bandwagon
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(InfoWorld) - Despite the tribulations of launching a regional wireless Internet network, some cities are making progress by sharing their hard-won lessons. Stung by criticism of high cost, flaky service and pandering to recreational Web surfers, cities can justify their investment in free wireless service by using the networks to support public safety radio traffic, attract new businesses and abolish the "digital divide" that can stop low-income workers from landing Internet-age jobs. That's the message from government technology workers gathered at the MuniWireless 2007 conference in Newton, Massachusetts. Ubiquitous wireless coverage could also improve residents' lives by offering automated traffic monitoring, parking enforcement and meter reading, they said. But sometimes even those goals fail to sustain public support when a network hits surprise hurdles, said Bill Oates, chief information officer for Boston. The city had been running its new Wi-Fi network for a month in the blocks surrounding city hall when citizens began to complain that the Internet service provider used a content filter that blocked certain Web sites. "We will keep hitting bumps in the road, we know that. But sometimes it makes you ask if it's WiMax versus Wi-Fi versus 'Why even try?'," Oates said Tuesday in a conference session. Cities can also face a challenge when the local historical society complains that wireless antennas can harm the architectural appearance of city buildings. City workers in Malden, Massachusetts, found a way around that problem by fitting a Wi-Fi antenna inside the storefront sign of a local bar. The business owner was happy to donate the location in exchange for a strong signal, and the new node boosted coverage in a heavily populated part of town, said Anthony Rodrigues, the city's director of information technology. That example illustrates that the politics of launching a wireless network can be a tougher challenge than the technology, Rodrigues said. It is fairly easy to link the networks in neighboring towns to share coverage areas or fire response, but much harder to persuade elected leaders to talk about funding the effort or agreeing who will control the network. The political hurdle applies far beyond the borders of New England, where the conference is taking place, said Esme Vos, the founder of MuniWireless.com , a blog and sponsor of the conference. Until recently, public wireless networks have existed only in major cities with large budgets, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Portland, Oregon, she said. But across the U.S., the number of municipalities with planned or deployed public broadband networks has risen from 122 in July 2005 to 385 in May 2007, according to MuniWireless. The downside of that success has been increased public scrutiny of the investment involved, and demands from some taxpayers that the networks should be financially self-sufficient. That pressure has pushed the industry to consider many new business models, borrowing ideas like the advertising embedded in text messages or commercials that play over cell phones, she said. Others have asked government regulators to force content providers to bundle free wireless access with existing cable television, phone service, wired Internet access, VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and IP television packages. However, Vos is passionate that governments should not insist that municipal Wi-Fi pay for itself, just as they don't require public utilities and paved highways to run at a profit. Governments throughout Europe already support public networks that way, not only in urban centers like Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam and Milan, but throughout rural regions, she said. In the meantime, municipal technology leaders in the U.S. should continue to hone their skills at expanding coverage and supporting reliable service. "There have been a lot of negative stories in the press recently, saying 'these things don't work'," Vos said. "But people are learning from their mistakes. If you have to use 40 nodes instead of 20 nodes to cover the area, we can learn from that."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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The city that was among the first to be wired for electricity in the 19th century wants to become one of the first to go wireless in the 21st.
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By JUDY O'ROURKE  SANTA CLARITA -- The days of patronizing certain food or coffee joints to tap a wireless Internet feed may soon be past, with citywide access on the horizon.
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Technology that can converge different wireless gadgets into a single device is discussed at a conference.