WiFi Gone Wild

Posted by michael on Thursday June 10, 2004 @12:43AM from the freebie dept.

b4k4 writes "According to this news release, the Texas Department of Transportation is proposing to install hotspots at all 84 Safety Rest Stops and 12 Travel Information Centers statewide. This would be in addition to the four test locations already in place along US287." Reader polluted notes that Portland is working on free WiFi. An anonymous reader sent in word of this year's wifi-shootout, a contest to maximize the range for an 802.11b connection. And Roland Piquepaille writes in regarding cows wearing WiFi collars, which I'm afraid reminds me of a crummy sci-fi movie.

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Re:Fleecing of America.. by chefmonkey · 2004-06-10 02:30 · Score: 4, Informative

...this is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

You need to go back and read the news release more carefully.
TxDOT is taking bids for private companies to come in and install intenet kiosks in rest areas. These kiosks would charge users per time-unit to use them to access the internet.
These private vendors are also required by TxDOT to provide free wireless coverage. The income from the use of the kiosk is expected to fund the wireless usage.
The only expense to the taxpayer is whatever administrative time is required to run the bid and selection process. After that, it's all in the hands of private companies.