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Spokane Gets Unwired
prostoalex writes "Spokane International Airport is getting wireless connectivity just before the city will expand WiFi coverage to 100 blocks in Spokane downtown. It will be the largest urban Wi-Fi zone in the United States, said Bob Conley, a founder of Vivato, the company that made the antennas for both installations. Vivato's press release mentions the service will be useful not only to casual downloaders. The downtown 'Hot Zone' will improve city services by facilitating intelligent policing, quicker fire and rescue response, and will support e-government initiatives and a more productive mobile workforce."
That's because Bush was in town yesterday rolling around in his motorcade...
The secret service doesn't just wander the streets of Spokane.
It's not a network you dispatch through, it'd be a network in which a cop can file reports from his car and save a little paperwork back at the station.
Plenty of agencies use drive in hot spots to access the RMS systems, run queries, etc.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
from http://terabytetrigangle.com : We (Spokane) also have connectivity - more high-speed fiber per capita than any city in the U.S. - all of downtown has high-speed services available via either fiber or copper. -------------- not sure, but i doubt they'll be adding wi-fi to that last of high-speed services.
... :P
it'll probably be more like a giant starbucks. $10/hr
for a minute there, i lost myself...
The Vivato panels that are being used are pretty robust. They're not your $49 Linksys that you buy at Circuit City. These Vivatos are capable of blasting a few blocks with the desired wireless bandwidth. It's actually pretty impressive. So yeah, to answer your question, they won't be putting up a bazillion access points. Just a few well-placed panels that can handle tremendous usage.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
The alternative isn't wired technology. The alternative is the wireless technology that emergency people already use.