The City of Brotherly Love loves Wi-Fi
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It&#39;s already well known for its cheesesteak sandwiches, the Liberty Bell - and for sports fans who once booed Santa Claus. Now, the city of Philadelphia is trying to forge a new reputation - by way of the Internet.
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Lightning-fast wireless Internet access, anywhere, anytime has been the elusive goal of Internet junkies and e-mail-a-holics. It&#39;s finally arrived - in Grand Haven, Mich.
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Wi-Fi enabled phones, like the iPhone, will drive demand  for fast wireless broadband networks like the ones cities want to build using Wi-Fi.
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The airwaves in the city of Riverside, California, just got a lot more crowded as the city switches on its municipal wireless network. Yet, for many living in the inland empire's capital city, the free internet service isn't a bonus, it's a burden.
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Router rooters and anyone who likes to eat, rejoice.
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Blog: JiWire says it has the right model to make advertising on citywide Wi-Fi networks really work.
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New York is on the verge of becoming a wireless city, but not everyone is happy about the prospect.
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As much of the world buzzes with  high-speed 3G mobile services, Taipei is humming another  wireless broadband tune with a year-old network providing  low-cost Wi-Fi service throughout the city.
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BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 12  /PRNewswire/ -- From trend-setting twenty- somethings to jet-setting road warriors, there is a Wi-Fi(R) phone for everyone.
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Silicon Valley&#39;s municipal wireless project is one of the most ambitious ever attempted, but good things take time-- more than proponents thought, in this case.
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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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It&#39;s been a year since a Mobile WiMax service was launched in Seoul and one of the world&#39;s most wired cities became one of the most wireless.
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Long-range wireless networking technology draws market interest as low-cost service.
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By Kris Hundley, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.  Sep. 7--On the day St. Petersburg took a giant step toward eventually  providing citywide wireless Internet capability, a familiar face said it was  already providing wi-fi capability, at least in parts of the city.
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By Alexis Grant, Matt Stiles, Houston Chronicle  Feb. 14--Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about municipal Wi-Fi.
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By Nowlin, Terrence  Wireless Internet is making its way into more parks nationwide.  Wireless public Internet service started popping up only a few years ago, becoming a mainstay of the funky coffeehouse or corner caf.
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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!