Philly Council Committee Orders Citywide ‘WiFi Wit’
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Written By Reprise Media | May 4, 2006 | Share This
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According to News.com, Philadelphia’s pending municipal WiFi project “overcame its final hurdle” yesterday, and should be well on its way to completion within a few months.
Well…almost. Contractor Earthlink agreed to abide by city rules governing the kinds of vendors it could contract with and assented to a handful of other political provisions. In return, the city council’s joint committee for education and technology gave its blessings to a bill that would allow Earthlink to attach equipment to utility poles, a major prerequisite for building the wireless network. However, the full council won’t vote on the legislation until May 11. A mayoral spokesperson gave assurances that the “vast majority” of bills coming out of that committee had no trouble passing, though, so everything’s all set!
That is…not quite. The Philly net would cover 135 square miles and take an estimated 18 months to complete. But reports out of Florida and California indicate that constructing a massive, ubiquitous WiFi network isn’t as easy as it sounds. An AP story from a couple of weeks back details the woes of St. Cloud, Florida, a 28,000-strong Orlando suburb that pioneered the nation’s first free town-wide WiFi net. Covering a mere 15 square miles, the system is plagued with “hiccups,” including reports from residents who say they can’t log on even within view of an access point.
And Om Malik posted yesterday that Google, Earthlink’s WiFi partner for the proposed San Francisco network, might have trouble meeting its 2006 deadline to launch a WiFi net in its hometown of Mountain View due to poor coverage. But there’s hope; Malik contrasts these efforts with a New Mexico WiFi project that aims to cover a whole county, which is reportedly “having no problems whatsoever.” Pointing to a muni WiFi “dos and don’ts” list, Malik says, “Maybe it’s just me, but maybe it has something to do with network planning and the gear which is resulting in dead spots, and spotty coverage.”
Topics: Wireless & Mobile |