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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.
Anyone have any stories about pulling something like that off?
How exactly does $20/m equal a free network?
PS the link to the article is messed up.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
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).
It's free for a few months, to get people to open up to the idea.
~rickshank
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
Cover your butt. Bernard is watching.
link doesn't work, but this has the classic ISP problem built in... don't you have to charge your users AT LEAST your cost?
a 10MB pipe is not cheap, and at 20 a pop is probably very poor service (technical and customer) i don't see this sticking around too long.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
The story is here. As for free vs. $20, it looks like it's free for now and they want to start charging $20 eventually.
For all those looking for the missing link (and that includes any anthropologists) check here.
Video Game cheats, hints a
If they NAT it to all their friends, would they be the Pittburgh Pirates?
You are not the customer.
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?
Next, I think they should setup access points along the train tracks.
I agree. Think of the 1337 h0b05. 0wn1n6 all the train commuters' wireless notebooks & PDAs. Good stuff.
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.
Next, I think they should setup access points along the train tracks.
Nice idea, but it wouldn't work. The 'cell' size of WiFi is very small. At standard (or even slow) train speeds, you'd be in and out of the cell before your laptop can handshake with the access point.
Moving out of edgewood into the City of Pittsburgh - Several thousand dollars and many headaches
Dealing with the city of Pittsburgh parking shit and most likely not having a driveway - Many Migraines
Increased Tax rates - Alot
Ripping off the RIAA and MPAA, not waiting for the pr0n images to load, not getting packetloss when ever someone uses Pay-Per-View downstairs, and all at 10Mbits for half of what I'm paying for ISDN speed Cable right now - Priceless
(Score:0, Interesting)
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.)
Now when people go outside to get away from technology and back to nature, they can pirate some mp3s at the same time.
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.
For one thing, it means a blossoming of software and music piracy, not to mention child pronography
Not in Penn. Their ISP are regulated to keep out the kiddie porn. Gotta love those state officials and their thoughtfull freedom restri^^^protecting during an election year.
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.
We have had a 802.11b network across most of seattle and the east side for a long time now. Seattle Wireless has a nice webpage up complete with a coverage map at
;)
http://www.seattlewireless.com
The pringle can network that they have constructed is quite impressive
Given the area that they're covering, I doubt it. I would assume that porn in public spaces is not as popular as porn in your home. This wifi network appears to cover some popular public parks, and a *lot* of office buildings. It seems unlikely that the clerks or shoppers at Kaufman's are going be pirating music while riding the old wooden escalator. Especially given the really low bitrate an individual is likely to receive.
;-). When I ride the trolly, there's at least another 15 people on board. Again, it's a public space. Same goes for the cafes that my ISP, Telerama, is covering. We're mostly talking about students who are working on research/homework, or addicted to the web (and coffee).
Allowing wifi on the trolley sounds like a great idea, too (at least for me
-Paul Komarek
no, the state is regulating something that is legal (ip traffic) in assumption that it might be used for something illegal. why aren't they requiring the usps to filter all kiddie porn ? (first off, they don't 0wnz the USps, do they own the internet traffic?) why aren't the phone companies required to filter spam calls?
it's election year, these guys want some good pr stuff to throw around when the campaigns hit heavy and hard.
what channels does one go threw to get this kind of thing done? I could setup a gorilla system and cover a few blocks of down town area Salem if i played my cards right but id love to get Salem to do it and have it be offical and be involved in the implemtation of it.
who do you have to call? how many signatures are needed? how many tons of paper work must be delt with? startup fee and cost? etc... any one??
nt
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
Man, that would be great. Right now I commute about 45min over public transit each way, spending more of that online and able to work would me excellent.
--Matthew
I wonder if they'll interconnect to Pittsburgh's I-net. Its the fiber network Pittsburgh got as a result of its cable franchise renewal. Last I heard it connects the city government, educational, nonprofit sites at 100mbps. That would be a truly innovative municipal infrastructure, using wireless for the last hop to homes and fiber for the backbone. The group behind the wireless project, 3 Rivers Connect worked on that project after all.
This is like saying I have a 100mbps network at home because I have a 100mbps hub connected. I still get only 384k to the Internet, because that's the speed of my DSL.
They're probably running this off a T1, and if so, obviously you're not really going to get more than a T1 worth of bandwidth, and that's if you're the only person using the network.
I've been to Pittsburgh, and they're going to have to open some half-decent restaurants and lease a weather changing machine before they'd have a chance at getting me to live there.
D
Yeah, its alot better than the US$30,000 I'm paying for wireless access @ CMU.
I have a shitty sig!
The problem with running phones over this service is that the 802.11b network could be knocked off the air by an interfering signal.
I wouldn't want to depend on a wireless phone that disconnects every time an amateur radio operator goes on the air.
(Interesting side note: I worked at Intel when they were doing interoperability testing of DSL in its early days. One of the big problems that they had was that every time someone turned on their vacuum cleaner, the internet connection would get dropped. :)
That said, such a service would be cool, and would be a good alternative for many types of communication. I just wouldn't want to rely on it for business or for calling 911.
--Bruce
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
I'm thinking the upstream locked down and only accessible via IPSec (which you would pay to get an account for). This would be an excellent solution since it would also serve to secure your communications.
Personally, I love the fact that the bawug network depends on the work and resources of individuals, and not the government.
Since Metronome/Ricochet failed, I don't expect our local government to do any better.
Stephan
For instance, here's a list of intentionally open wireless access points around SF
--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu
To open up Pittsburgh to the idea, you'd need a website, a parade, a commission, a mascot to wander around Downtown dressed as a PCMCIA card, and some sort of perogie festival. That might not do it, though, in which case, you'd have to pretend that it wasn't there and go to bed at 6:00 like usual.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Because viruses are transmitted over networks? I'm not sure I get your point.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Argh. I'd happily deal with a beer tax if I could buy it in the G'Eagle like in a sensible city. Or, heavens forbid, be able to buy wine in the same place. Is that that radical an idea?
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
When I first came here about three years ago, there was a billboard that read "Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights." Good introduction to Pittsburgh.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Were you thinking of CMU? If so, then you made the right decision in not coming. Hell on earth. Misery. People climbing over each other to get out. Like a scene from the Bible, really.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Drexel University wireless-enabled their entire campus and completely bailed on WEP, opting instead to use a Cisco 3060 VPN with individually-registered MAC addresses of wireless cards. That could easily cause problems for Linux users unless a Linux client exists, but it is possible to do easy, large scale, secure wireless. MAC spoofing is not enough to get by this.
Check it out.
Intelligent Life on Earth
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?
Population isn't down that much, but it's a lot older. The percentage of people over 65 in Pittsburgh is up there with retirement areas in Florida. Plus, very few immigrants move to Pittsburgh; those numbers are among the lowest in the US.