Taipei plans city-wide Wi-Fi network
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Taiwan capital says network will reach 90% of population of 3M, will charge users for access. TAIPEI  - Taipei plans to make wireless Internet access available across the Taiwan capital by the end
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(InfoWorld) - Portland, Oregon, became the latest city to launch a municipal wireless network, starting a free, ad-supported service featuring localized content and services from Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. The network, being built by MetroFi Inc., went live in a few central neighborhoods on Tuesday and is intended eventually to provide Internet access in 95 percent of the city's indoor and outdoor spaces. Cities and counties around the U.S. wantÂ to build wireless networksÂ to promote business and tourism, provide Internet access to residents who can't get or afford wired broadband, or add another choice to the usual options of cable or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). Municipalities in some other countries, including Taipei, are also part of the trend. Traditional carriers have opposed city-owned networks. But many municipalities, including Portland, are simply contracting with private service providers to build, own and operate their systems. Portland's is the first service to feature local content from MSN. It will appear on a special MSN home page for Portland that will always appear after users start up the service. When they first try to use the network, users will see a MetroFi page that asks them three anonymous demographic questions, such as whether they are male or female. Then the network will remember the client device's MAC (media access control) address, and the next time the user goes on the network, there won't be any questions, according to MetroFi. There are no plans now for services or ads that use the subscriber's physical location in the city. MetroFi has built municipal wireless networks in several cities, including Aurora, Illinois, and Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Foster City and Concord in the San Francisco Bay area. It uses mesh technology in which a Wi-Fi access point can reach the Internet partly through other access points rather than needing a direct wired connection. The service in Portland will deliver speeds comparable to DSL, according to the company. To pay for the service, banner ads about 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) deep will appear continuously at the top of the user's screen, Van Haaften said. MetroFi has already secured a handful of local sponsors and plans to add more over time. The City of Portland will act as an anchor tenant, with public-safety and other employees using the network for improved connectivity in the field. MetroFi may offer the city a special grade of service, Van Haaften said. The service became available Tuesday in Pioneer Courthouse Square and in much of the Buckman, Lloyd and Kerns neighborhoods. The network, using access points mounted on street light poles, is scheduled for completion by mid-2008. To improve reception inside homes, MetroFi recommends indoor modems from Ruckus Wireless Inc. that can amplify the signal from the service.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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By ANDREA KELLY, ARIZONA DAILY STAR  A city consultant recommends that Tucson solicit proposals to build a citywide WiFi network to provide residents with a lower- cost high-speed Internet option.  A study by Maryland-based Columbia Telecommunications Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - Taiwan is moving forward on its wireless broadband Internet initiative by finalizing rules for an upcoming WiMax license auction and preparing its first major WiMax testing zone, officials said Tuesday. The island hopes to be among the world leaders in adopting WiMax. Part of the idea is to boost Taiwanese companies, which already manufacture a lot of related IT gear, by promoting the technology. Officials also want to ensure speedy wireless Internet access for even the most remote areas of the island. WiMax base stations can send broadband Internet signals to far greater distances than the Wi-Fi technology it is meant to replace. Although estimates vary on how far WiMax signals can go, in a densely populated place such as Taiwan, where users are not likely to be positioned within sight of access points, the distance should be between 2 km to 4 km. By the end of this year, government officials will finalize rules for a WiMax license auction meant to dole out radio spectrum to network operators. Currently, the government is debating how many WiMax licenses to issue. The National Communications Commission (NCC), which is charged with creating policy related to WiMax, wants to see nine licenses auctioned. But the ministry under which the NCC operates is pressing for just two, an NCC spokesman said. He said officials still plan to have auction rules in place by the end of this year, despite the disagreement. Early next year, the island's biggest telecommunications service operator, Chunghwa Telecom, will start work on a WiMax test site in Luo-Dong Township, on the northeast coast of Taiwan. By mid-year, over a third of the town's residents will be able to access the network, and the rest of the town will be covered by the end of 2007, said Hsu An-ling, a Chunghwa representative. In early 2008, Chunghwa will expand the network to the rest of Yilan County, where Luo-Dong is located. Nortel Networks is providing mobile WiMax base stations based on the IEEE 802.16e standard for the project, which include antennas capable of demanding applications such as VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) and voice over WiMax. WiMax gained a huge boost earlier this year when U.S. operatorÂ Sprint Nextel announced plansÂ to build a coast-to-coast network using the technology. The company hopes to launch trials by the end of next year, and expand coverage to 100 millionÂ people in 2008. WiMax needed the push because it competes with technologies that could be used in its stead, such as Wi-Fi and 3G (third generation) HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Taiwanese mobile phone service operator Far Eastone Telecommunications recently started offering HSDPA in Taiwan.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Dennis Tseng is an avid Web surfer who loves to hang out in Taipei's upmarket Hsinyi district, where wireless Internet access is freely available to all.
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By Justin Buehler, Victoria Advocate, Texas  Jun. 4--BAY CITY -- The entire city of Bay City is going Wi-Fi.
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By Kris Hundley, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.  Sep. 7--On the day St. Petersburg took a giant step toward eventually  providing citywide wireless Internet capability, a familiar face said it was  already providing wi-fi capability, at least in parts of the city.
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Meraki, a wireless-networking startup, announced plans on Friday to deploy a citywide wireless network that will provide free Internet access for every neighborhood in San Francisco.
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(InfoWorld) - Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is testing a free wireless Internet service ahead of the annual meeting of the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which take place this month in Singapore. Singapore's government is taking advantage of the IMF and World Bank meetings to showcase the country's advanced technology infrastructure, including the use of 3G (third-generation) mobile networks. The Wi-Fi trial covers part of downtown Singapore around the Suntec Singapore International Conference and Exhibition Center, where the IMF and World Bank meetings will be held, and includes five nearby shopping malls, the IDA said. Users will be able to surf the Internet for free in these areas at speeds of 512Kbps, it said, asking for Singaporeans to test the network and offer their feedback on the service. The month-long trial of the Wi-Fi service, called Wireless@SG, began on Friday and comes ahead of plans to roll out a free nationwide Wi-Fi service. The national Wireless@SG service will enter operation in Singapore during January 2007.
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Dual-mode handsets will be able to connect to the company's worldwide Wi-Fi network on the cheap.
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Philadelphia has finished testing its wireless Internet project, setting the stage for America's biggest citywide Wi-Fi network that will also offer access to low-income households, officials said on Thursday.
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The grand city of Philadelphia unveiled today an ambitious plan to coat the city with Wi-Fi, using a mix of public and private funds to provide the service.
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T-Mobile Hotspot&#39;s network of public venues with Wi-Fi is extensive and its partners are big names you&#39;ve heard of(Starbucks, FedEx Kinko&#39;s, Borders Books).
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San Francisco city officials could bring the city&#39;s proposed Wi-Fi network closer to reality at two meetings this week as a key leader proposes significant changes to the plan.
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AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL hopes to commission a wireless broadband network that residents and visitors could use to log on to the Internet.   A request for information issued to would-be suppliers said the Wi-Fi network would cover outdoor public spaces in the cbd and on its fringes by 2010.
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A startup says it can give subway riders wireless Internet access that&#39;s faster than most home broadband in the U.S.Tests at stations and on a special stretch of track in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system around San Francisco showed that Wi-Fi Rail&#39;s patent-pending technology delivered more than 15Mbps of wireless throughput to riders and people waiting for trains, the company said. Wi-Fi Rail hopes to roll out such networks on rail systems around the world and charge commuters for access.Commuter rail, with thousands of daily riders, could represent a rich opportunity for public wireless Internet access. Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and coffee shops have drawn some paying users, but the hotspots are useful more for occasional than for regular use. And citywide public Wi-Fi networks, often planned out with local governments, have run into political and business problems.Wi-Fi Rail, founded in 2006 and based near Sacramento, would build two kinds of Wi-Fi networks: one in the cars and one around the tracks, said Michael Cromar, Wi-Fi Rail&#39;s CFO. Passengers would log in to access points on each car, and each car&#39;s network would lock on to one access point after another along the rail system. The trackside access points, in turn, would feed traffic onto fiber-optic lines. Roaming would be handled by the in-car network and be transparent to users, Cromar said.Even better than typical home broadband, the network can deliver its average 15Mbps speed both upstream and downstream, according to Wi-Fi Rail. Passengers would share that link, but in tests, there was no noticeable slowdown between one passenger and eight passengers using the network, Cromar said. The system worked with the trains moving at speeds as high as 65 miles per hour.The company tested its technology in both underground and above-ground parts of the BART system. Above ground, Wi-Fi Rail used standard outdoor access points with line-of-sight antennas to form a link from trains as they went by. In an underground test, the company used &quot;leaky&quot; coaxial cable, a technology some rail systems already use for exchanging operational data with cars, according to Cromar. The leaky cable is deliberately unshielded so signals traveling along it can be picked up all through a tunnel.In-car tests took place on a 2.6-mile BART test track last month, as well as on a stretch of tunnel in San Francisco. Another part of the test proved such a service can draw customers, Cromar said. Wi-Fi Rail set up regular access points in four underground stations in downtown San Francisco and let people waiting for trains register and use the network for free. Without any publicity, more than 6,400 people signed up in less than six months, he said.Although BART hosted the tests, it hasn&#39;t made a deal to have such a network deployed, Cromar said. But Wi-Fi Rail has talked with one interested transit system in the U.S. and is working with a partner to approach a rail system in another country, he said. The company said its technology is ready to go and could be used for anything that follows a predetermined path, including highways.
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By Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe  Jun. 9--Boston's plan to blanket the city with wireless Internet  connections is set to pick up speed this month as companies jockey to play a  role and a pilot WiFi project gets underway in a square-mile area of the Grove  Hall neighborhood.