Pittsburgh Launches Large, Free, Public WiFi Network

Snkscore writes: "Pittsburgh launched an outdoor public Wi-Fi network on Monday. The story here from cnet talks about their plan to cover 4sq miles of downtown Pittsburgh with 10Mb internet access and charge a $20/month access fee (cheap!!). I think this is the coolest thing. Next, I think they should setup access points along the train tracks." Update: 05/21 18:59 GMT by T : Garbled URL fixed now -- sorry 'bout that.

Comments

fixed link

[jspey]

I don't know what's up with the link in the blurb, but here's a working link to the article: http://news.com.com/2100-1033-918439.html?tag=fd_t op

Mr. Spey

Missing link

[56ker]

For all those looking for the missing link (and that includes any anthropologists) check here.

not new in pittsburgh

[techstep]

I guess the newest thing about this is the proposed contiguous range. But public wireless service in Pittsburgh isn't a new idea. Telerama has been offering free wireless service for the better part of a year, but mostly at coffeeshops and a few restaurants. While this is a far cry from the four square miles of coverage 3 Rivers Connect offers, it's hard to beat "free", especially outside of the downtown area.

One of the big problems with wireless connectivity around Pittsburgh is the local topology. There are lots of hills and valleys and comparatively little flat land. This has made cellular service rather unreliable in a lot of cases, and makes wireless service difficult outside of short ranges (at least, outside the relatively flat downtown area). It'll be a while before both providers offer service beyond small ranges, but it's a promising start all the same.

NYC Wireless Project

[subbie]

This is happening in NYC as well, only there are non-for-profit groups such as NYCwireless working to provide FREE access in public spaces throughout the NYC metropolitan area. If you're in NYC, check out this Community Network Node Database (also available for other major US cities.)