Wi-Fi emerges as emergency communications alternative in Fla.
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Wi-Fi hot spots emerged as a new emergency communications alternative in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, with traffic at some outlets up 50%.
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Corporate wireless networking specialist Aruba this week unveiled what it calls a new architecture for enterprise WLANs: the Wi-Fi grid.
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Wireless broadband isn't the only wireless game in town.  Columnist Craig Mathias describes a slew of short-range but very important types of wireless that are starting to become widely used.
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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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Florida's power and telecommunications infrastructure suffered a serious blow when Hurricane Frances blew in over Labor Day weekend. Portable cellular phone service stations and generators offer only a temporary fix. By Jacob Ogles.
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By M.K. Guetersloh  BLOOMINGTON - Twin City officials would like to see more people wired. Make that wireless.
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With a rash of muni Wi-Fi projects collapsing, companies and cities realize their initial approaches to providing ubiquitous, free network connectivity aren't working. The problem is Wi-Fi is too expensive to deploy, and there's not enough user demand.
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Fans of wireless internet access can now find their nearest wi-fi hotspot using their mobile phone.
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The home of the Braves is the eighth city the Internet service provider has signed up to deploy a Wi-Fi network.
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In a move to fix one of the most significant shortcomings in emergency response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, New York has hired Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a wireless broadband public safety communications network to allow the city's emergency personnel to communicate in real time.
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Providence, R.I., officials have unveiled a wireless mesh network that can provide police and fire personnel with quick access to city records.
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Backers of a Philadelphia Wi-Fi project are worried that a bill going through the state legislature would spike a plan to blanket the city with free or inexpensive wireless access. [Broadband Blog]
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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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Motorola has unveiled its Incident Scene Management offerings, a wireless broadband product suite for first responder commanders and other public safety and government users who require communications tools for managing large-scale emergencies.
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Philadelphia may spread the joy of wireless Internet access to its citizens.
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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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VFW Post #9097, Hurricane, now has an Internet