Specifically, the City of Philadelphia is proposing to invest in the creation of a new wireless mesh network serving the entire city based upon the current Wi-Fi 802.11b standards... By deploying individual Wi-Fi cells on street lights and other traffic control devises, large areas can be quickly served at low cost.On Friday, the Inquirer joined the Daily News in giving editorial-page support to the plan. And today...
Once the Wi-Fi units have been installed, they create a self-organizing and self-healing wireless mesh. While some of the units will require a high capacity connection to the Internet, most units will only require access to a power source that can be readily obtained from the existing street or traffic light. Anywhere from 8 to 16 units will be needed per square mile depending upon topography and the built environment. It is estimated that one employee can install 10 units per day. Deployment is both quick and economical and wireless access is available as soon as each unit is placed in service. Wireless access can be rolled out as new units are installed. Additional costs will be incurred to provide a connection to the Internet for some of the units.
Philadelphia expanded free outdoor wireless Internet access on Tuesday as part of a multimillion-dollar plan to connect the entire city by early 2006.Since this story broke a week and a half ago, all I've heard around Cleveland is people muttering that One Cleveland was there first, and counting the times Lev Gonick got quoted in the national coverage. (Here's George at BFD linking to Neil Pierce's column that starts with Philly but soon gets to OneCleve -- not very accurately, since Pierce seems to think the whole 1C system is wireless, but what's a fact or two among friends?)
It is the first major U.S. city to start a citywide wireless Internet project, although some smaller communities already have such networks, said Dianah Neff, a city spokeswoman and head of the wireless project.
The expansion offers Web access to users of WiFi-enabled computers and devices within a radius of about a mile from the first so-called hot spot -- downtown's Love Park, where the project originated earlier this year.
Guys... One Cleveland is great, but what's going on in Philadelphia is different. If Mayor Street actually does what he's committed to do, people in far-flung neighborhoods from Bridesburg and Germantown to South Philly may soon be able to put $49 USB wireless clients in their windows and pick up free, fast Internet connections from lamppost routers up the block. There is nothing like this in One Cleveland's plans. It's more like the rooftop mesh networks being built by the community geeks Steve Goldberg met recently in Champaign-Urbana, but on a much, much bigger scale.
Philadelphia deserves its headlines for a very interesting concept, and a lot more headlines if they execute it. Cleveland needs to get over itself -- once again -- and learn what we can from some smart people elsewhere in the world.