Texas State Parks Offer Wi-Fi

digrieze writes "Here's a story raising a holiday ruckus. Texas has started providing free Wi-Fi service at state parks, causing friction with the 'get away from it all' crew. Looks like a nice place to vacation to me."

Comments

Everything is bigger in TX even wifi charges!

[garcia]

causing friction with the "get away from it all" crew

You don't go to a state park and stay within wifi range (I assume their RV/tent sites in the main campground) if you want to "get away from it all". If you want to get away from it all you go backpacking in remote areas of the park or the State. Amenities like showers, flush toilets, electric hookups, and swimming pools doesn't exactly put you in the "roughing it" category.

So far, the vast majority of users are conducting business, and have both the tools and the ability to pay the average daily service fee of $10 to $20, says Phillip Redman, a research vice president at Gartner. But there are also a growing number of free Wi-Fi hot spots, which make the cost of connectivity irrelevant. And with proliferating access and declining price, the user's physical location has become less important than ever before.

I see a lot of RVs in campgrounds with DirecTV. Why not Direcwav while you're at it? It's $100 setup and $50/month and all you need is a direct view of the southern sky (in TX I doubt that would be a problem - and no, I'm not even a customer of theirs). If you're a serious "snow bird" RV fan it would sound like the best way to go. Hell, you could undercut TX State Parks and offer wifi for $5 or less. I can't see the $15/day pricetag honestly... The article mentions that they realize that putting wifi into the wilderness would be difficult due to terrain/etc and would require numerous antennae throughout the park but they mention that TX state parks have great RV/tent campsites that will have coverage... So why the high cost?

I bring my hiptop with me when we go "camping" but I generally only check my email twice a day from it and make phone calls only when necessary. It is nice to have along but I'm more for enjoying my freedom when I'm "camping".

I just can't see businessmen making it a regular practice of saving money on their overnight stays by using a state park campground and firing up their $15/day wifi when they can probably pay $15/night more (with parking fees, camping fees, and wifi fee) at a hotel and get it free.

YMMV.

Free?

[AlexTheBeast]

The service will be free in the five Texas parks for three months; then TengoInternet, the wireless provider, will charge about $15 a day.

Err... doesn't exactly sound all that "free" to me.

"Hence, in order to have good coverage, you need to put antennas all over the park."

Just to prevent the future fires that the spelling police will start.

Antennas is correct when talking electronics.
Antennae is correct when talking biology.
- Source

AlexTheBeast
--
Tech-Recipes - Leave Your Computer Knowledge for Future Generations

Re:Free?

[Davak]

"Hence, in order to have good coverage, you need to put antennas all over the park."

Great! That's exactly what I want...

"Hey, dad, is that a long-necked gray glacksmale hawk on that wi-fi tower over there?"

Honestly though, you know what will really happen?

a- Spammers will hit the open access points to flood their product onto the net.
b- Kids will steal as many access points as possible.
c- Tax payers will wonder what the hell they are doing putting wi-fi out in the middle of nowhere instead of giving wi-fi to rural Texas... where it might actually improve quality of life.

I am a wi-fi fan-boy... but what the hell?

The list

[sh00z]

The article doesn't mention it, but the parks are: Choke Canyon State Park (Calliham) near Three Rivers, Blanco State Park near Blanco, Balmorhea State Park near Toyahvale, Goose Island State Park near Rockport, and Ray Roberts Lake State Park (Isle du Bois) near Pilot Point. Reference: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/news/news/041220b.phtm l

that's fine and all but...

[the_pooh_experience]

what I want to know is when are they going to add AC outlets to all of the trees?

Complaints about it already

[moofdaddy]

I work for the texas state park and let me tell you how not happy people really are about this new service. What the article did not report was that we recieved a petition from 500 "naturalists" saying how strongly they object to this.

Naturally, we did what any good goverment body would do when handed a petition, we threw it away.

Bottem line is that technology is good and that this is going to make our lives and everyone else who uses the park but is not crazy, lives easier.

Progress is a good thing!!

Re:Complaints about it already

[ostrich2]

Bottem line is that technology is good and that this is going to make our lives and everyone else who uses the park but is not crazy, lives easier.

Technology is not good. Technology is also not bad. Technology is, and that's probably the most you can say about it.

I think the part people are very nervous about (myself included) is that while they are out trying to enjoy the seclusion and serenity of the outdoors, someone else will be enjoying it while loudly playing Doom with the accompanying noise and such. I admit I'm a lot more negative on the possibility of cell towers than I am wifi, but it's basically the same thing.

What I can't understand is why would someone go so far away from their homes just to reproduce their home environment? Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I was in Utah a few months ago in an area positively reknown for its night-time views, and it upset me that the first thing some people would do when it got dark was turn on a 1M candle-power unhooded flood light at their campsite.

Believe it or not, many people actually dislike the confinements of their city lives and are weary of making their escape location just another tourist spot. I know I am.

Cool!

[natron 2.0]

As a Texas resident and an avid camper, I think this is great! There has been many time I have been camping and wondered what else there is to see and do in the local area. Sure one would argue that you could go to the lodge and collect a bunch of tourist pamphlets, or you could sit in your tent or at the picnic table and check the local weather and current fishing and river conditions or even post first on /.

If I don't have WiFi in teh park

[WormholeFiend]

How am I supposed to google for information on how to set up the tent, use a fishing rod, etc.?