Slashdot Mirror
Rio Rancho, New Mexico: 103 Square Miles of WiFi
An anonymous reader submits "Rio Rancho, New Mexico is going to have 103 square miles of wifi coverage thanks to Intel & Usurf. The Albuquerque International Airport also has free wifi available. (By the way, Rio Rancho also has one of the largest chip factories in the world. Owned by Intel of course.)" The airport service will be free, but though the site is coy about pricing, users will need to sign up (and pay) for the Rio Rancho mesh network. Update: 06/20 03:56 GMT by T : Rio Rancho, not Rio Ranch. Mea culpa.
Can someone fill in the blank? I mean mad props to the engineers on the project, but... ?
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
They'll be able to download music right from area 51.
My Karma is so low that even my own postings are beyond my current threshold
On large wireless projects like this, how do you keep the scum of the earth from using it to their advantage? Can a pedaphile buy a cheap wireless card log on for awhile and get his pictures and then just throw out the card when done. Will we have to one day register our mac address's?
I am a nanotechnologist this means nothing to me.
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
To be honest I've never never heard of RR, and of all places it is in New Mexico, which is THE king of all states for lack of radio stations while driving on the highway... just think, maybe your or my city is next.
http://www.fsckin.com/
The whole of Albuquerque is moving that direction. Solely due to Intel. People who live all the way across town are moving there for the cheap house prices. Props to them for building and supporting a community. They're spurring a lot of good development in Albuquerque.
I would shudder to think of what would happen to that whole area if Intel shut shop.
Now the cacti will have wifi and I still don't, this is a huge step for mankind
he he he..
for some of us..it is near our house...
They have the Internet in New Mexico?
During the 2004 Balloon fiesta you can bet people will be using their laptops in mid air.
Couldn't this be placed in a more, you know, useful location? I hate to offend the New Mexicanites but why is this not in San Diego where I live?
Fin
Okay, I have the ideas of a mesh (aka net-through-clients) network, just... how does the WiFi cards do it?!? Or do we have to have the software impliment the mesh?
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Houston: 617 Square miles in city limits, greater Houston metro area: 8778 square miles
On a different note, I don't think most people have ever heard of Rio Rancho.
Also is this a picture of a panel antenna?
Don't underestimate the significance of all this. Consider the impact on the cellular industry if WiFi providers can compete at the metropolitan level. If 3G was in trouble before...
Health professionals point out that all of the studies have been paid for by the WiFi Industry. "They used to say that there was no connection between lung cancer and smoking." Dr. Lucas Steiner an world renouned cancer expert said, "Its the same with WiFi."
"This could be mean billions in settlements," noted Ben Scheisster, president of the Ambulance Chasers of America, formerly the American Bar Association. "For out clients, of course."
"There is absolutely no connection between the wide spread incidence of cancer in high WiFi concentration areas across the country," insisted Jacob Wieselheimer of the WiFi Internet Providers Council. "All of the studies that we funded prove this, and the government agrees."
"Of course the government agrees," said Dr. James Goodfellow. "The President of the United States is a Republican. There is a reason that their party's motto is Corruptus in Extremus which they filtched from The Simpsons the longest running cartoon in history."
Dear Intel,
You've got a lot more employees in Oregon than in New Mexico, when can we expect to see something like this in Hillsboro/Aloha/Beaverton?
Pretty soon please...
For pete's sake, timothy, it's "Rio Rancho", not "Rio Ranch". The submitter spelled it correctly twice, and you didn't double-check before "correcting" it for the title?
build it!
Nobody is stopping you from getting your broadband enabled neigbors together and aggregating your bandwidth.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The airport has had free WiFi for some time now, although you get what you pay for. My average time connected before getting dropped is about 2 minutes.
And as far as why NM goes....it's really not *that* surprising for those that know the area as Intel and Sprint are the two largest employers in the area. I'm sure they had a hand in encouraging it....
Theres a New Mexico now?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
With the recent slew of stories about new WiFi hotspots, it looks like it's becoming a pissing contest among the Slashdot faithful to find the next biggest hotspot and report it to millions of readers who won't be going there anyway.
Let's see, 103 square miles.
WiFi would be spherical, or since we're using SQUARE miles, we'll just pretend it's 2D and use Circular.
The equation for the area of a circle is PiR^2 = A where A is Area. The Area is 103 miles, so PiR^2 = 103.
The square root of (103 divided by Pi) = 5.49, approximately.
So this "103 square mile" network is 5.5 miles radius. Not bad, though the number 103 miles makes it look bigger than it is.
...if only I were smart enough to say, "I see your hotspot is as big as mine."
Alas. Hindsight is 20/20.
It's an amazing thing to see your hometown on Slashdot. I can believe that Intel is behind all this, after all they were behind the new High School being built(tax breaks). heh heh, indeed
because the Intel fab is right in the coverage area. Get your own Intel fab, get your own wifi. Easy. Really.
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
Actually most the book stores sell these cute little yellow New Mexico Passports. Unfortuantly I can't find a photo of one online.
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
It is, isn't it? I found it awesome when I saw Spokane up there.
Uhh, think again. Ever read the Terms of Service you agreed to? Unless you and your neighbors are all lucky enough to have one of the few providers that allows bandwidth sharing, you'll soon see huge fines or just termination of your service if you setup a wireless network.
--Quentin
Chill. I live in the NE heights
New Mexico seems to have lots of cacti. Perhaps you have not noticed all the cane cholla? Which also seems to have small amounts of Mescaline Maybe that will get you to notice them. (of course i doubt that there is any usable amount in them.)
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
The Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area has about a million people, and Intel has a nice big fab in Rio Rancho. This isn't exactly the middle of nowhere.
Albuquerque PC
I personally seriously doubt that this is ever going to happen. I've had relations with Usurf before and I have nothing positive to say about their management or their tech staff -- the vast majority of which is outsourced to other companies.
Usurf was recently delisted from NASDAQ because they didn't meet the minimum listing requirements. Their stock was near worthless, and is now traded over the counter. Usurf is also currently in receivership to Pipeline Networks, a Colorado ISP they "purchased" and never paid for. There is a _long_ list of local Colorado Springs companies that have been burned by them.
I like the grand aspirations, but I have serious doubts about their ability to produce.
Receivership Link
Recent (horrible) financials
Bleak 10QSB filing
I live about 10 minutes north of Bernalillo. I see fields of them many places in surrounding areas. They basicly grow like weeds in many places. Of course perhaps all the siberian Elms and Salt ceders are blocks the views of them. *shrug*
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
Yeah, after all, Albuquerque/Rio Rancho is only home to an Intel plant, a Honeywell plant, Sandia National Laboratories, The Air Force Research Laboratory (aka Phillips Labs), EMCORE West, Eclipse Aviation, and an assload of other "high-tech" operations that I can't think of offhand. And of course it was the original home of Microsoft... So why would a backwater town like that get something like this?
-30-
Smithers: Sir, I have a small personal request.
Burns: Oh, of course, Smithers. Anything.
[repeatedly pushes a button marked, "Trap Door"]
Smithers: I disabled the button, sir. [Burns keeps pushing it] Anyway, I need some time off. As you know, I've been writing a musical about the Malibu Stacy doll--
Burns: [gives up on the button] A show about a doll? [laughs] Why not write a musical about the common cat? Or the King of Siam? Give it up, Smithers.
Smithers: Actually, sir, we're booked into a small theater in New Mexico.
Burns: Whoa, slow down there, maestro. There's a *New* Mexico?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Of course...the albuquerque metro area also has its downfalls, such as being ranked the 8th overall most dangerous metro area in the United State http://www.morganquitno.com/cit04pop.htm#METRO
Rio Rancho, not Rio Ranch. Mea culpa.
Kinda funny that they corrected the spelling with the name of the town yet utterly fail spanish spelling immediately afterwards. Spanish spellings should be easier since they're phoenetic. I'm assuming that it should be "Mi culpa"... a rough translation of the gutter-english phrase, "my bad."
Then again, who am I to say anything about spelling or grammer when I have an error in my sig that I'm too lazy to correct?
"Operating systems suck: you're better off using only the BIOS" --trainsaw.com
Not trolling, but since when would this constitute 103 square miles? I read the headline and thought "Wow!" When looking for more information on the project, the most I can find regarding their actual coverage is as linked above. :/
Oh well. C'est la vie.
...Rio Rancho is way oversold. Wait until they get the new Glengarry Wifi network. That old Rio Rancho stuff, it's just not moving like the new stuff is. Ya give me that new network and I'll tell ya it's going right out the door -- right out the door -- that's what I'm telling you!
I live in Albuquerque, which is the big city that Rio Rancho lies on the outskirts of. ("I KNEW I should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque!")
For years, trying to get high speed internet access in this city/state was like getting teeth pulled. While everyone else was first getting high speed internet access, we were left in the dark even though we had Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Labs, the University of New Mexico, and Intel all in the same area. While everyone else was getting DSL, our local telephone company dragged their feet on the issue. (To this day, in the middle of Metro Albuquerque, I STILL couldn't get DSL at my home, even if I wanted to!) Several years went by with them promising us high speed internet access... but they were all empty promises.
It wasn't until @Home brought us internet cable that we were finally able to join the high-speed era and get away from our 36K modems. (The networks were too noisy for 56K to work.)
It makes me happy to know that New Mexico is finally on the leading edge of something involving internet access, but I imagine this will make QWest very unhappy in that city... I suspect many people won't bother to get DSL from them, but will instead opt for the new wireless option so they can take their laptops with them everywhere they go.
Not that I care. Serves the phone company right.
-Chiem
Rio Rancho was the name of one of those properties the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross were selling to scam people out of their money.
A always B be C Closing!
I live in Rio Rancho and my house is inside the coverage area! WOO HOO!
Roadrunner Wireless Services,Inc is allready doing wireless intenet in Rio Rancho.We have used the ism bandwidth up serving our customers
How in the heck was that a troll?
Albuquerque PC
This is going to happen. Your "can't do" attitude indicates you're not going to be the one to do it. That is all.
The commodity hardware is available. The software is available. It has been done before.
This might not be true in your area, but there are enough wide-open broadband + 802.11g access points in my area to anchor a freewan mesh of any size without even paying for internet access at all. Please note that many people (myself included) run their access points wide open deliberately.
Investment cost to host a freewan cell (802.11g) is about $100 upfront and $0 for ongoing costs. To anchor it to an ISP with acceptable TOS (or one that's known to turn a blind eye) is a minimal monthly many of us are already paying. Contrast that with the corpnet million dollar towers and the municipal $50 million dollar 802.11b networks and you begin to understand why the little guy has the advantage here.
When the mesh grows to the point where it's got consumers in the six figures, you can bet somebody is going to want to connect to it badly enough to pay the freight, and then the monthlies go away.
Apart from a solid municipal commitment to fiber-to-the-door, (and perhaps even then because of the side benefits) I don't see this not happening all over the country in the near future.
Of course, YMMV.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Rio Rancho High School was built in large part through help from Intel. At one point they were not going to do it, but then the city reminded them that it could at any time annex the property that they're on, and then they'd be subject to property tax, and other taxes having to do with water. (They use a lot of it, so I hear)
RRHS being first open during the school year 1998 (I just barely missed going there) it is current the "new high school" if you're in Rio Rancho.
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
Hehe, exactly.
To point, I can see the Intel buildings from my house... so my parents will definately be in the coverage area.
Actually, our house is about 20 years old, and is in one of the oldest neighborhoods in RR; if not the oldest.
I am unamerican, and proud of it!