Slashdot Mirror
Austin Becoming Wi-Fi Hot Spot
Omega1045 writes "The Austin Chronicle is running an interesting article on how Austin is fast becoming the Wi-Fi Capital of the Free (as in beer) Wireless World. With the industry standardization board Wi-Fi Alliance moving to Austin earlier this year, and groups like Austin Free-Net helping local businesses, the article quotes Austin has having more hotspots 'than anywhere else on the planet'. While this article does quite a bit of bragging about Austin, it also does a great job of highlighting how businesses and local non-profits can work together to promote and profit from free Wi-Fi Internet access. This provides an excellent model for other cities to follow using tools like Less Network."
This won't mean much soon. I live in Portland, and wireless is everywhere. It seems the west coast in general is pretty wired at this point.
In about a year or so, this will be a moot point anyway. Everyplace will have wireless broadband soon enough....
a friend and i were driving among the streets of austin (not just downtown or near UT, but in and around other places) and it is possible to simply jump from hotspot to hotspot while waiting for the light at an intersection or while driving around.
They're everywhere. Virtually every decent pub, restaurant and coffee shop here has free wireless.
-
Austin has great wireless indeed. Alot of it is due to the great coffeehouse scene. Sure many parks, neighborhoods,bars,theaters, and restaurants are getting them at a breakneck pace. But the boom in wireless here is mainly at the coffeehouses in Austin which rivals the coffeehouses that I have been to in New York, Seatle and San Fran.
Austin's becoming a hot hot spot because it's still a comparatively small city with the likes of New York and such.
Imagine stretching WiFi from the Bronx to JFK Airport, and I don't find it surprising that Austin is so hot. Some small city was bound to become a hot hot spot, and Austin happened to have good luck.
This is a neat part of the design of newer restaurants and coffeeshops: they have to plan for more juice!
A coffeeshop that opened last July in Seattle near my office had put in several outlets before they opened, and they have free Wi-Fi. About two weeks later, overwhelmed with laptops -- and doing great business -- they installed a whole strip of outlets and changed their table layout for more two-person tables. The place sometimes has 8 to 10 people working in it, all of them buying coffee and contributing to a nice air of comradeliness.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
It's not as baffling as it sounds. Setting up a WiFi hotspot doesn't cost that much these days. A company that provides free wireless can obviously have an advantage over similar companies that don't have free WiFi when catering to patrons that are looking for WiFi. Just as some travelers may want to stay at a hotel that has a free pool as opposed to a hotel without one, a hotel (or coffee shop, or...) can draw more people simply because they have free WiFi. So for minimal cost, you can fill that room in your hotel or have more people stopping at your restaurant. Profit!
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Austin may be small by comparison with NYC but it's a major metro area compared with most places.
Still, your comment made me wonder if wi-fi could be the basis for an economic development model for smaller cities & towns. I wonder if any of the profs at UT are looking at that aspect of the Austin "model"...
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
2. More people come to your business
Simple, huh?
This article comes just in time! I bought Linksys WRT54G for my home network and I'm intterested to open it for my fellow net users, BUT. As I have experience in hosting / server administration, I'm concerned of security. Mostly MY security, to prevent my AP becoming a source of spam. I think I should set up firewall to limit smtp-traffic, but what's sufficient? I think the problem is common with other free internet access points / cafes, schools etc. How is it done?
I do know how to set up firewall / routing / bandwidth control, but which rules to use? Any points to good sources of information?
It's actually working out pretty well. Starbucks is getting no draw whatsoever from their wi-fi installations which are run by T-mobile. The locally owned shops like Halcyon, Little City, and Mozart's are packed almost every day with paying customers who drop by to drink coffee, surf, and check their email. Wi-fi costs them little more than their initial installation plus monthly ISP fees, and they draw in more customers.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Is Wi-Fi big in the states? Just how big?
I'm finding all this coverage a little puzzling.
I haven't heard of a single Wi-Fi hotspot in this country(Ireland).
May the Maths Be with you!