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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.

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Breaking News by mg2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone in Oakland right now is encouraged to help beta test the network. All you need is an 802.11 enabled card, and the SSID is 'linksys.'

    If you're having any trouble, just go ahead and access http://192.168.1.1. Leave the username box blank and the password is 'admin.'

    Thanks.

  2. This is great.! by RexRhino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is great for many reasons:

    1. When the government runs the ISPs, it means that law enforcement can monitor what you browse online. No need for search warrants anymore!

    2. It is not like wireless technology changes or evolves, so I am sure a wireless purchase now will be good for the next 40 years.

    3. Poor people need low-cost wireless access. After all, brand new laptops configured for wireless access are cheap, but that $8 a month fee for internet access is just WAY too expensive.

    4. There are way too many choices. Who actually wants to CHOOSE there ISP, when the government can make all the choices for them. After all, Oakland county does such a great job fixing the roads, lowering crime, and protecting the enviornment... how could they NOT do a better job.

    5. The government can make sure that dangerous information is not accessible. We can make sure that p2p music file sharing is not possible, and since we already require certain websites not be available in public schools and libraries, obviously the ban will also apply to public wireless.

  3. 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.