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Oakland County to go Wireless

Posted by Zonk on from the yay-civics-projects dept.

y00nix writes "Oakland County, MI has plans to roll out a wireless Internet access program dubbed "Wireless Oakland" covering all 910 square miles inside the county. County Executive L. Brooks Patterson unveiled the plans at last night's State of the County address. Additional press coverage via the Oakland Press, and the The Detroit News." Similar in concept to Philadelphia's plans covered yesterday.

5 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. The questions that people (may) ask: by akeyes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    (from a related link on the article)

    Q: If I leave Oakland County, will my computer work?

    A: Of course. But you might have to revert back to a wired connection, at least until the whole nation goes wireless.

  2. I'm in Oakland County by Dragoon412 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...and while I really, really like the sound of this, I'm more interested in seeing what sort of impact this'll have on cable and DSL prices in the area. It seems to me that Comcast, SBC and Wide Open West will have a much more difficult time convincing people to pay $60/month for broadband access when they can get adequate service without wires or hardware for free.

    I don't think this sort of WiFi would have the speed to keep me happy, but I definitely think my parents and most of my family would be perfectly happy with it, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it drive my cable bill down $10 or $20/month.

    1. Re:I'm in Oakland County by rjordan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      but this is the beginning of the government controlled communications infrastructure and the final elimination of individual value from the internet

      --
      "When no-one around you understands start your own revolution and cut out the middle man"
  3. As a former resident of Oakland County... by chazwurth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    my take is: what's the point? Oakland is one of the richest counties in the U.S.A. Oakland County residents can, for the most part, afford their own internet access. I'd much rather see a project like this in neighboring Wayne county, where it could actually prove a benifit to residents (although home computer ownership is probably far lower in Detroit than it is in any of Oakland County cities).

    --
    The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. --Dan Kaminsky
  4. Re:Yay Government Waste... by drooling-dog · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I would be angry if my local government did something like this.

    I'm just thankful that municipal water systems were put in before the advent of the bottled water industry. Otherwise it never could have happened, and we'd all be showering and washing our clothes in Dasani...