Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Largest Citywide Wi-Fi Deployment

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the better-network-neighborhoods dept.

Grumpy writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Aiirnet will begin installing, next month, the largest single Wi-Fi deployment in the nation in the city of Cerritos in Southern California. Ultimately, anyone with a laptop or wireless device will be able to surf the Web from virtually anywhere in the city's 8.6-square-mile area. Scores of wireless networking transmitters are being placed atop public buildings, traffic lights and other structures to blanket the city. The 51,000 residents of Cerritos have not had DSL broadband access to the Internet because the city is too far from the telephone company's central office and Cable Internet access has not been an option either."

5 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Drive to LA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hear in LA, I hear open access points are as common as traffic jams

  2. What about abuse? by jaiger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With all of these municipal and large open wireless networks being discussed I begin to wonder what these organizations will do about network abuse.

    If I were a spammer I might consider moving to this town or better yet a town nearby. How's a beat-cop going to know that it's me spewing spam all day - or even a few hours - from various points all over town? I'm sure you can send a lot of spam in a couple hours or so.

    -joe

  3. Cerritos is getting the bad end of the deal. by duncf · · Score: 4, Interesting
    According to the article...
    The city struck a deal with the company that allows Aiirnet to place transmitters throughout the city for free... Cerritos, meanwhile, agreed to buy 60 subscription accounts, each at $34.95 a month, for its field employees.

    So... Cerritos is paying Aiirnet to set up Wi-Fi transmitters all over the city and Aiirnet will keep all the profits. What's in it for Cerritos? Sure, if Aiirnet doesn't end up making money then it makes sense, but considering they will be the only broadband provider in town, they will definitely succeed and Cerritos will get nothing.
  4. Article not entirely true by webslacker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not true that the city is without broadband.

    My parents live in Cerritos and I set them up with DSL before I moved out.

  5. Microwaves and Cell Phones by Eberlin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's very very tempting to have a bunch of friends drive around with portable microwaves and cellphones as a new means of DDoSing the city. Anyone know off-hand where the access points are? I kid, I kid!

    It's interesting and convenient, but also gets me a bit paranoid. Those who read the BOFH articles would remember the bit where they used 802.11 to do thinks from changing their calendars on the fly to tracking down where in the building the boss is. Wonder if you can triangulate signal strength, etc. to pinpoint where a particular MAC is at any given time.