Author Topic: How about a wi-fi network for the whole town? (Read 313 times)

Swoop · « **on:** December 13, 2003, 03:30:55 AM »

Well it's being done. Cerritos, 25 miles south east of LA. Seems this small town (pop 51,000) can't get DSL or cable for some technical reason and the population demanded the city council did something.......and so the city authorities are allowing a Philadelphia based wireless ISP, Aiirnet, to install access points throughout the locale for free, they pay the company over $25,000 a year to allow their employees to access the network. Access points will be installed on public buildings and traffic lights. Aiirnet will connect the WLAN to the Internet via a high-speed link.

Work starts next month on arguably the world's largest Wi-Fi hotzone, covering 8.6 square miles.

Cool. Wadda ya think? 10 years before the whole of New York state is a wi-fi zone?

Wolfala · « **Reply #1 on:** December 13, 2003, 05:20:27 AM »

New York is not L.A. New York has WAP's - you just need to go WARDRIVING to find them.

Swoop · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2003, 05:29:34 AM »

Yes I'm aware New York state is not where LA is, however, imagining the whole of California covered by one massive wi-fi hotzone is a little too much right now. Forgive me for not being fully aware of the name of the smallest state in the USA what with me not 'avin a good edumication being a Brit, I picked New York State cos I think it might be a little smaller than California.

Anyway, back to the subject, how long d'ya think before we start seeing massive roll outs of wi-fi coverage to entire States? How long before the whole east coast from Boston to Washington is covered, for example? No driving around to find hotspots, just switch the PC on and go.

MrBill · « **Reply #3 on:** December 13, 2003, 05:42:16 AM »

Any link or source please.

Wolfala · « **Reply #4 on:** December 13, 2003, 05:51:51 AM »

You gotta ask yourself a question - what is in it for the company that must maintain the infrastructure? $25,000k per year is a drop in the bucket.

Second is the question of security over open airwaves. IMO, I don't think WIFI crypto schemes have reached the level of maturity where the general public is going to be open to sharing their connection with perhaps hundreds of users per node, each transmitting sensative material (maybe).

Third is the question of bandwidth - WIFI right now is line-of-sight. In order to make it reasonable for the end-user, the signal has to have sufficient strength to go through walls, etc - and unless you have high gain antenna's slapped all over the place, esp in the major metro area - I just don't think the technology is mature enough to allow it.

To answer yr timeline question - if a company were to undertake this - best guess - 7 to 10 years if there were public support. But that is really the driving factor - the Cali folks saw the need - and had the desire - and for their demographic it worked out in their favor.

~~Wolfala~~

Swoop · « **Reply #5 on:** December 13, 2003, 06:55:36 AM »

The $25k is merely for gov employees, the article mentions nothing about how much Aiirnet will charge the public for use of the connection.

SLO · « **Reply #6 on:** December 13, 2003, 07:34:18 AM »

too easy to intercept Wireless.....

I wouldn't go that way:cool:

Manedew · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2003, 07:56:25 AM »

stupid to invest in 802.11x for large areas when 802.16 will blow it away ... they should wait

midnight Target · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2003, 11:09:39 AM »

Hard to believe Cerritos has no broadband access. It is a part of the LA metropolitan area.