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[Phoenix]

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.

CNN LInk


Will be interesting to see how this plays out...

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I like the idea.

 

[Phoenix]

Soon the 'real' matrix will be here. A free network floating around in the ether and all you have to do is hack into it from whereever you are.

I often wonder about the security of these sorts of things because unlike a hardwired connection where the ISP knows where you are when you surf kiddie porn, these will allow some things to take place in a variety of areas and through various routing schemes will give a hacker/criminal/'terrorist' some annonimity.

 

[Doth Togo]

Downloading pr0n from a city bus will be fun.

 

[MrPing1000]

Philadelphia, the DS capital of the world!!!

 

[DarienA]

Awesome idea... in Baltimore I think Harboplace has free wireless access.

There are a few problems with this though IMO... and they involve file sharing....

 

[sc0la]

Yeah, wouldn't people be able to access your files if they where shared. It would make it difficult to share files with specific people (your family/roomates/between your own computers) without making those available to passersby/neighbors.

 

[Mr. E. Yis]

I think there might be a chance for too little privacy. Wouldn't everyone's upload/download data go thru a main city server for this to work? Also couldn't it be easier to track where somebody is this way?

 

[RevenantKioku]

Yeah, wouldn't people be able to access your files if they where shared. It would make it difficult to share files with specific people (your family/roomates/between your own computers) without making those available to passersby/neighbors.

Password protection?

 

[sc0la]

Password protection?

Well I should have clarified, that a lot of people may not know how to do ;P

edit: damn, I really wrote that like I didn't know you could password protect wtf is wrong with me today.

 

[retardboy]

They're trying the same thing in Long Beach. (California) We've had a "hot zone" for a while now... It's only down one street (it's a big street) but they're planning on expanding it to more of the city.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I want this in every city
my Powerbook likes

 

[carpal]

Whoa! As someone who lives almost right in center city Philadelphia, this is some exciting (and unexpected) shit! Assuming this plays out as planned, I'll be looking forward to the day when I can tell Comcast to go fuck themselves.