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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.
This is not only important for web surfing and the like but brings up the possibility of cheap non celluar phone access. This could spawn a whole new industry, this just needs to get repeated in a few cities so that it becomes trendy and will then be adopted country wide (be the first one in your neighborhood).
If your goal is to have access while on the train, wouldn't it be cheaper to outfit the TRAIN with access points and have a single data connection from the train to some home base? They already have some form of communication with the station anyway. It would be MUCH cheaper to retrofit that line on each passenger train and equip each passenger train with WAPs.
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
10 MB/s is almost 7x as fast as a T1. I could see this attracting lots of businesses, and lots of geeks to Pittsburgh.
Yeah it costs taxpayer money, but so does giving tax breaks, and so does building convention centers. To me this is a smarter way to attract business to your city. I hope others follow suit.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
It is run by 3 Rivers Connect, a nonprofit whose major source of funding is the state of Pennsylvania.
taxes, baby. People who may never use a computer are helping to fund it. Of course it's for, ahem, their benefit, in that it should help to attract new businesses to the area, project a 'wired high tech' image and create jobs, you know, like those multi-billion $ software companies everyone wants in their tax district?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I'm curious how you think a (currently)free wireless Internet connection is going to make music piracy and child pr0n any more popular?
Just because I can connect to the Internet from the Point doesn't mean I immediately go download unreleased CDs or naked 8 year olds.
How is getting something for a period of time for nothing anything like getting half a wheel?
If it were anywhere near your analogy it would be, "Here is a working wheel. You can use it for now but eventually you will have to pay or stop using it." In the mean time you save time and effort. It's free.
Any time you get something that benefits you for nothing, even if it's just for a second you are getting it for free. Maybe you can't access the network everywhere in the city, but if you can access it anywhere you have gained something for nothing. That is free.
I just don't see how anyone can do anything but say, "Thanks. That's cool." about this.
If you had a small business within the access range, what would prevent you from sharing this internet connection and use it for commercial purposes? Is this part of the plan?