Apple Historian
Join Date: May 2004
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne....ap/index.html
This is an amazing idea. I would get on a ladder and steal a couple base stations. ---------- PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- For about $10 million, city officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot. The ambitious plan, now in the works, would involve placing hundreds, or maybe thousands of small transmitters around the city -- probably atop lampposts. Each would be capable of communicating with the wireless networking cards that now come standard with many computers. Once complete, the network would deliver broadband Internet almost anywhere radio waves can travel -- including poor neighborhoods where high-speed Internet access is now rare. And the city would likely offer the service either for free, or at costs far lower than the $35 to $60 a month charged by commercial providers, said the city's chief information officer, Dianah Neff. "If you're out on your front porch with a laptop, you could dial in, register at no charge, and be able to access a high speed connection," Neff said. "It's a technology whose time is here." If the plan becomes a reality, Philadelphia could leap to the forefront of a growing number of cities that have contemplated offering wireless Internet service to residents, workers and guests. Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, began offering citywide wireless Internet access this year for $16 a month. The signal covers about 13 square miles. Corpus Christi, Texas, has been experimenting with a system covering 20 square miles that would initially be used only by government employees. Over the past year, Cleveland has added some 4,000 wireless transmitters in its University Circle, Midtown and Lakefront districts. The service is free, and available to anyone who passes through the areas. "We like to say it should be like the air you breathe -- free and available everywhere," said Lev Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University, which is spearheading the project and paying for a chunk of it. "We look at this like PBS or NPR. It should be a public resource." In New York, city officials are negotiating to sell wireless carriers space on 18,000 lampposts for as much as $21.6 million annually. T-Mobile USA Inc., Nextel Partners Inc., IDT Corp. and three other wireless carriers want the equipment to increase their networks' capacity. Wireless technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years and become drastically less expensive. The new "wireless mesh" technology under consideration in Philadelphia has made it possible to expand those similar networks over entire neighborhoods, with the help of relatively cheap antennas. Neff estimated it would cost about $10 million to pay for the initial infrastructure for the system, plus $1.5 million a year to maintain. Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, a technology buff who carries a wireless handheld computer everywhere he goes, appointed a 14-member committee last week to work out the specifics of his city's plan, including any fees, or restrictions on its use. "We are reviewing some 9,000 recent UNHCR referrals from Syria. We are receiving roughly a thousand new ones each month, and we expect admissions from Syria to surge in 2015 and beyond." - Anne C. Richard, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Here in Chattanooga, we have two large, popular public parks that are both outfitted with high-speed, wireless and FREE Internet access. It's awesome.
One, Miller Park (and Miller Plaza, directly across the street), is smack-dab downtown, so all the office and business types can eat lunch and surf or do business. The other, Coolidge Park, is about a mile or so north, right on the banks of the Tennessee River that winds through the city. That's the park that shows Friday night free movies on a big screen (Willy Wonka, Wizard of Oz, etc.) and before the movie starts, you'll see people on their blankets or lawn chairs with their laptops open, surfing, e-mailing, etc. I've gone down before, on a Saturday or Sunday, just to watch the kite-flyers, barges and power-walking soccer moms ( ) and take my PowerBook and enjoy the morning. Athens, Georgia is set up like this, I heard. Or at least a large section of it. I figure in five or so years, it'll be fairly common and expected. My friend was just in Quantico, Virginia a few weeks ago, and while flying out of Richmond, VA, back to New Orleans, she opened her iBook up and found that the entire airport was set up with wireless free Internet access. Suddenly, her two-hour layover didn't seem so bad. She e-mailed me from there, "guess where I am?". |
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Hates the Infotainment
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
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This is a very cool idea, and very progressive for a town like Philly IMO. I hope they can find a reliable way to do this. Would be a great model for other big cities. And I agree also that in 4 or 5 years, most downtown and densly populated metropolitan areas will have something like this.
One thing it will do is certainly drive up the demand for laptops, and drive down the costs of home-based broadband. Whose going to want to pay $40 a month when they can walk outside their home or drive down the street to their favorite park bench and hop online? Of course, the weather and other factors will have some say in the practicality and reliability of "working outside", but still.... This can only lead to good things IMO. And how great will this be for poorer neighborhoods? The trick will be to get inexpensive laptops in the hands of the families that live there. Want to give them access without driving up the liklihood of break-ins and such (to get the fancy computer equipment). ...into the light of a dark black night. |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Amazing how all this has skyrocketed (the Internet and everyone using it and wanting on) in the past eight years or so. I got online first in 1997, with a USRobotics 33.6 modem. Had it for YEARS, and thought I was hot stuff.
Now, eight years later, cable and DSL are in nearly every city, wireless is commonplace, non-tech regular joes have their houses networked and routers for all computers in the house to get online, etc. People now actually freak out - on various levels - when they CAN'T get online. Notice that? Suddenly, their entire world comes to a halt (I'm that way to a point...I hate being away from e-mail and breaking news). If terrorists REALLY wanted to throw the Western world into a tizzy, they'd figure out some way to bring all this down, and hard. People would panic and spaz-out big time. I take it for granted, at this point, just going to my computer and going anywhere I want, for whatever reason. My banking, ordering products, buying music, staying in touch with friends that I'd never consider phoning, news, Mac stuff, etc. If I had that taken away from me for more than several days, I'd kinda hate it, to be honest. It's changed everything, it really has. Makes me wonder what another 5-10 years are going to be like. And with all that good stuff, there's the unavoidable bad. I'd be really interested in seeing an objective, non-politicized study on the effects of easily-acquired pornography and gore on society. There HAS to be some, because when I was eight years old, I had no idea what a cumshot was, or an interracial she-male amateur cheerleader gangbang. Kids now...jeez. I can only imagine what "education" they're getting! There's no telling the kind of stuff they're trying in the back of the school bus! "No, put her head down lower like that...yeah, that's how the picture looked. Now take your other hand and put it..." |
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BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope. Join Date: May 2004
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too bad philly sucks :P
it is a good idea though. the logistics are a bit boggling though. it'll be interesting to see if it goes through and how it works out. Will the internet become a city service? Possibly even free? I assume they are going with 802.11b |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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In a related story, this appears in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune. (I'm posting this here in case the article "goes registration" on someone):
URL: http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/4962334.html Quote:
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Yarp
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
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I live on newbury street in boston. The whole street is wired for a wireless connection. We get reception in our apartment(top floor) but it's pretty weak and the connection is slow.
it's a great idea, and I really hope that more cities start doing this citywide instead of just streets and parks. The next place I want to see internet is on planes. (I know that some planes already have it, but really, by planes I mean jetblue |
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