Subject: [NEXTEL-1] More Cities Set Up Wireless Networks

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 23:41:11 -0500

More Cities Set Up Wireless Networks
By JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO

Jan. 5

Add urban renewal to the growing list of reasons to deploy
wireless computing networks.

The city of Long Beach, Calif., plans to announce on Friday that
it will make free wireless Internet access available in its
downtown area as part of an effort to attract visitors and
companies to the business district. The city will use the
increasingly popular standard known as Wi-Fi, which lets personal
computers and other hand-held devices connect to the Internet
without wires at high speed.

The new service is one of the first examples of a city's setting
up a free wireless Internet system. It is being supported in part
by equipment donations from a group of companies, with the city
underwriting the $2,500 annual cost of an Internet connection.

The project will initially provide wireless service to a
four-block area around the city's convention district along Pine
Street, but there are plans to extend the network to other Long
Beach neighborhoods including the marina and the airport, said
Bruce Mayes, the acting technology officer for the Long Beach
Economic Development Bureau.

He said the city wanted to expand its high technology base and
viewed the network as a good way to advertise its commitment.

Long Beach is one of a growing number of cities and community
groups that are considering free wireless Internet access. A
number of cities are exploring the idea of installing such
networks in downtown areas or throughout entire communities; they
include San Francisco; Seattle; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Lodi,
Calif.

"You can think of these as urban renewal projects," said Douglas
H. Klein, the chief executive of Vernier Networks, one of the
companies that will supply equipment for the service in Long
Beach. Vernier Networks, which is privately owned, is based in
Mountain View, Calif., and makes systems for managing and
controlling access to wireless networks.

In recent months, Mr. Klein said, the company has noticed a
growing interest from local governments eager to find ways to make
their city centers more attractive.

"People like to feel like they're in a comfort zone," he said. "If
they can attract a certain clientele, it starts to create that
aura."

Such networks send a message for municipalities, said C. Brian
Grimm, the communications director for the Wi-Fi Alliance, an
industry group. "It's `don't leave downtown for lunch,' " he said.
"It's high-visibility and high-value, and it permits a
municipality to easily serve its residents."

Municipal governments are joining a community movement of more
than 30 organizations around the United States that now deliver
wireless Internet service.

In addition to Long Beach, the Bay Area Wireless Regional Network
in San Francisco this week plans to switch on its first
experimental access point atop San Bruno Mountain, in the southern
part of the city. The network should make the Internet available
over roughly an eight-mile radius to users with special antennas.

The Bay Area wireless group is a hobbyist experiment, run by just
four volunteers with a donated Internet connection, but the
project illustrates the low costs of wireless networks based on
the industry's 802.11 wireless standard.

According to Tim Pozar, a radio engineer who is one of the leaders
of the experiment, the group will spend about $2,000 to install
the system and will increase capacity by adding low-cost antennas.

"In general we believe the Internet is a ubiquitous medium that is
a basic tool that should be available to as many people as
possible," Mr. Pozar said. It's a slam-dunk and very easy to do."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/06/technology/06WIFI.html

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