Dayton, Ohio: Free City-Wide WiFi

_Bunny writes "The City of Dayton, Ohio announced a plan to make all of downtown a WiFi hotspot - and as of last week, the network is live. This makes Dayton the first Ohio city to offer free WiFi access. Approximately one square mile of downtown is now live, including Fifth Third Field, the Oregon District, Webster Station and RiverScape. The WiFi project is a public/private partnership not funded by taxpayers, and comes at no charge to the end user." (According to the linked story at WHIO-TV, the city is actually paying about $5,000 per year, with advertisers picking up the rest of the tab.)

Comments

History in the making

[Anita Coney]

This is a BIG event in history. Quite possibly the largest event ever. For the first time in history, there is actually a good reason to live in Ohio!

Re:History in the making

[kc8apf]

You mean the ice, snow, sleet, hail, rapid and large temperature changes, and lack of things to do weren't enough good reasons to live in Ohio?

Unless you want to do RF research, go to one of a few quite good engineering schools, or just really enjoy using snow chains, you probably want to avoid Ohio even if it has free, public WiFi.

Re:History in the making

[iamwahoo2]

You are not allowed to use snow chains in Ohio.

Parking Lot LAN party!

[Cruithne]

Lets all do a parking lot lan party!

Pay 4 bucks to park 24 hours, sit in your comfortable car with a laptop, and game it up on a free network... if only wireless didnt completely and totally suck for gaming :D

Re:Parking Lot LAN party!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, I'll have to pass. My mom won't let me borrow her car. I guess I'll have to play from the basement.

too bad..

[Anonymous Coward]

unfortunately, nobody actually lives in Dayton, Ohio.

Countdown in 3, 2, 1...

[Rude Turnip]

For the randroids that will start bitching about this new network and how it prevents private companies from creating viable, competing WiFi networks in Dayton.

Re:City Wide?

[EngrBohn]

Hmm... I could scrap my cable modem and set up a Yagi pointing toward downtown Dayton. You think 20 or so elements would get me enough gain from Xenia?

Booyaka! Home, sweet home

[AJYeary]

Woot! It's not every day that my hometown is on the front page of Slashdot.

Although I wish my submission would've been the one that was accepted. Oh well, I can hope for the dupe :-p

~aj~

And the answer is...

[fm6]

That's a good question. Answering it should help one or two lawyers put their kids through college.

Re:City Wide?

[jargoone]

In these tight economic times, why would a city consider it a wise move to spend tax payer monies on project like this just escapes me. How is this system going to pay for itself?

For fuck's sake, at least read the summary...

The WiFi project is a public/private partnership not funded by taxpayers, and comes at no charge to the end user.

Re:Uhm.. ok

[YrWrstNtmr]

I think a different city would have benefited more.

And Dayton should have funded this for some other city?

Re:Dayton

[Anonymous Coward]

And back in the cold war Dayton was one of the top 10 targets for the ruskies (WPAFB).

And today, my sources tell me, Verizon actually owns about 70% of the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. So, I guess, it still is a top ten target.

Re:City Wide?

[Rick.C]

What more could I ask for?

Fewer tornados?

Yagi antennae attract tornados, you know.

Re:City Wide?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just swell knowing my tax dollars are working where it counts!

It's good to know Cincinnati has such informed citizens. From TFA:

"HarborLink will basically offer some advertising to the end user to offset the cost that would normally have been passed on to the user. This allows the service to be offered at no cost.

I'll be in line to shut this fucker down.
Unless of course professional wresting is on the tee vee.

Goin' to Visit Grandpa!

[Aetrix]

Maybe I will go visit my grandfather in Dayton now...