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Wheat Field Wi-Fi
An anonymous reader writes "The world's largest wireless network is not the proposed network in Philadelphia. It's in Walla Wall, Washington. Built by the Columbia Rural Electric Association, the network covers an area larger than the state Rhode Island. The network is already operational in the rural Washington State farming community of Walla Walla."
Wireless is probably the only connection available in these areas; Dialup degrades as your distance increases from your core phone system, and dialup speeds in the middle of a corn field are probably not too hot (14.4k anyone?). The only other suggestion for high speed internet for these people would be satelite (read: expensive), or dedicated cable of any kind (read: even more expensive).
I would be more than willing to pay 40$ a month for 256kbps in the middle of nowhere, instead of paying 30$ a month for 14.4kbps AOL or 4-500$ a month for a dedicated T1 or something like that.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
In rural areas, T1's can still run up to $1000/mo, and that's just for the fiber, that doesn't include traffic.
Especially when you realize that the telco has to lay the T1 directly to you for you to get it, and that you'll be paying for that too.
Wouldn't have made more sense to implement a Wi-Max (802.16) based network than installing all the Wi-Fi access points?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Umm maybe because we shouldn't discriminate against the rural communities just because they don't live in a big city.
Personally I would like to move to a rural community of less than 10,000, but there is no technology in most of those places - and that's how I make my living.
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