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Rio Rancho, New Mexico: 103 Square Miles of WiFi

Posted by timothy on from the pleasures-of-the-mesh dept.

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.

14 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. I should care because ____ ? by Fjornir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can someone fill in the blank? I mean mad props to the engineers on the project, but... ?

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    I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
    1. Re:I should care because ____ ? by challahc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seems like the cost of bandwidth would be trivial. If it is actually possible to stop using land lines all together, then the majority of the costs would be associated with maintaining WiFi equipment. You wouldn't be paying an ISP to make sure that you are connected, it's your responsibility.

      Of course, this would be in a utopian WiFi world.

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  2. Wow, now the aliens will be impressed by thepeete · · Score: 4, Funny

    They'll be able to download music right from area 51.

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    My Karma is so low that even my own postings are beyond my current threshold
  3. keeping the scum out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:keeping the scum out by spacefrog · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You forget just how easy it is to clone/fake a mac address.

      That is not too hard, even for idiotic scum who are trying to cover their tracks.

      Just wait until they start figuring out how (with subpeonas) to cross reference the mac address to the distributor it was sold to, and then cross-reference that against the serial number on your receipt.

      You do buy all of your ethernet/wifi cards with cash, don't you?

      Just wait until it is YOUR mac address they have cloned. The Melinda virus escapade a few years ago shows that a mac address is sufficient for a search warrant.

    2. Re:keeping the scum out by X86Daddy · · Score: 3, Informative

      The scum of the earth will use every piece of open infrastructure that exists in the world. This is no different.

      Bank robbers walk right into banks without being somehow stopped at the door. Muggers walk along the sidewalk without somehow being prevented from doing so.

      Why? Because to implement safeguards that "stop" the scum require a level of inconvenient intrusions into the 9x% "good" people's privacy and efficiency.

      Further, pedophiles getting pictures is the last thing to worry about on that topic... I think the authorities would worry more about pedophiles uploading pictures via an anonymous connection... and the evil deeds done to make the pictures. Which is something they currently have to deal with anyway on the Internet at large... one more anonymous entry point doesn't really change the picture... and in fact, helps the situation. Picture this scenario:

      FBI pinpoints the initial upload of some child porn to an anonymous connection at AP xyz on an open wifi network. They have a date-time value and a physical location! The sense of anonymity aforded by open APs can also be a foil, as the authorities proceed to request local surveilance footage from any cams in that area. It turns out being less anonymous than whatever obfuscation methods pedo posters use now. This is a good thing.

  4. No Wifi for me! by ic0n0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now the cacti will have wifi and I still don't, this is a huge step for mankind

  5. Some perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's some data for comparison:
    • San Francisco: 47 square miles
    • Boston: 48 square miles
    • Washington DC: 68 square miles
    • Rio Rancho: 103 square miles
  6. Re:If it can happen in Rio Rancho... by pavon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You beat me to it :P

    Anyway, about that warm summer nights thing. The only place I have lived in New Mexico that stays warm at night is Albuquerque, because all the concrete absorbs the heat all day and then releases it all night. Most everywhere else is wonderfull at night. That is actually one of my favorite things about the desert climate - no matter how hot it gets during the day it still cools down at night due to having no humidity. I can't stand being out in the East or down the South during the summer, where it is hot and muggy all day and then warm and muggy all night.

  7. Balloon Fiesta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    During the 2004 Balloon fiesta you can bet people will be using their laptops in mid air.

  8. Dateline: June 19, 2050 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    Rio Rancho, NM - Scientists are still debating whether the highest incidence of cancer in the country is the result of what cancer experts are calling "a dubious flirtation" with WiFi which began in the early part of the century. Studies indicate that there is no connection between the the widespread use of WiFi technology and a variety of cancers, including brain cancer.

    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."

    .... [and so it goes ... ]

  9. Rio Rancho by jmorzins · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

  10. That number is decieving... by GFLPraxis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  11. Re:Spokane and now New Mexico ? by Fahrenheit+450 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

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