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Tempe, AZ To Provide Wireless Broadband
jangobongo writes "City officials of Tempe, Arizona are laying claim to being the first major metropolitan area in the United States to deploy citywide wireless Internet access. MobilePro Corp. and Strix Systems have been contracted to provide a mesh network covering the entire city, which is to be in place by late summer or early fall. Downtown Tempe and the Arizona State University will have free access available, while the rest of the city will be offered monthly subscriptions ($20 for dial-up speed and $30 to $40 for high-speed wireless). Local broadband suppliers have been quiet on this, unlike elsewhere."
Nice. Tempe moves up a few notches on my list of second home possibilities.
they can compete with Tempe's pricing. They're not offering it for free everywhere or for something like $15/mo as has been suggested elsewhere.
If I had a deal like that in my hometown, I would subscribe; however, I would not shut my home connection down by any means.
Let's face it, I have it pretty good: a static IP, a connection that never goes down, an ISP that filters all my mail and good support. Why would I cancel that? Wireless is nice to have, but doing it old school does not have to conflict with that.
Yeah, so. another city is doing a "mee to!" and doing the wireless dance. Bets on how it fails because these municipalities have no clue what it takesto do this?
I hope this really works out well. Not only will it start a rise of interest in this kind of service but will personally benefit me. I frequent that area but do not live there. It just opens up the doors for all kinds of stuff good and bad.
For being such a geek, I don't like the sound of this. All I see if a big expense being picked up by the taxpayer. Things of this nature shouldn't be subsidized by the public, as they have nothing to do with ensuring civil liberties (which should be government's top priority on a very short list).
It's just not right to make everyone pay for something only some will use.
This is what's needed, local councils and the government need to provide investment for both wireless and wired high-speed net access. This way, even the rural areas can get it, how long will it be before prospective buyers of your rural house start to lose interest because of no broadband in your area? It is fast becoming an essential commodity.
And in this case, the fixed-line telcos now have some competition, which is always a good thing(tm).
Hey, if I had that in my city, now that I have Skype on my PocketPC Axim, it'd be just like a cell phone, but with cheap/free long distance! Woot!
Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know. - M. King Hubbert
We've had city wide wireless available for quite some time now. It's offered for FREE too. For those interested, I live in Fredericton New Brunswick Canada! Go Canada!
I LIKE TOAST!!!
I mexico there is basically only one phone company, TELMEX. Everyone buys there dsl from them, (sure there are 2 or 3 cable providers but thats only in 3 cities.) as part of there package you can use your same user/pass while at there hotspots. This places are located everywere: malls, downtown, random streets, airports, ect. As a result you get free (all ready paid for) access to the internet almost nation wide.
Tempe is one of the best-run cities in the valley (make that THE BEST). As one of the only land-locked cities, the powers-that-be are interested in doing more than just sprawling out another patch of stripmalls and stucco houses--they're being forced to compete for business and residents by improving services and density. Yes, Daisy, competition works in government, too!
:(
Unfortunately, it's making housing prices go through the roof (even compared to the rest of the valley), and it's pricing some of us young urban professionals out (even though I really wanted to stay and 'vote' my support for Tempe with my feet & taxes). Hopefully some of that free wireless will make it accross the river into Phoenix, where I had to move
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
Just wanted to say Good job. I wish they did it while I was actually living in Tempe and not when I moved out to Chandler after I graduated from ASU. Otherwise I wouldn't have had to leech from my neighbor. Crap... did I just say that out loud? Uh I mean, I was sharing his connection. Yeah.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
AFTER I move out of Tempe, AZ (gets worse) to the lovely city of Lincoln, Nebraska (yuck)
There are a lot of other smaller cities that have already implemented this: http://chaska.net/m l/
in Minnesota, and Minneapolis is planning on rolling out a city-wide privately owned network soon:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/5342733.ht
Cool stuff either way!
Get everyone in Tempe AZ to get with it and get a massive online Sims game going. Everyone can live out a life and never leave the house.
The benefits will be enormous. Traffic will be lighter and delivery & gaming support services will reap great rewards!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Montreal is also known as "Canada's Dirty Underwear"
We have such tourist-friendly features as:
The world's dirtiest french people!
Give us a look! hahahhahah
I feel like I'm taking CRAZY pills!
Most excellent, if anything this will make other isp's get a clue and start lowering their rates.
How's the public library?
Where I live my only option is Comcast. I use my T-Mobile hotspot service (sync T-1) with my laptop but would gladly sign up for something like this. Hell is going to freeze over before I pay Comcast 49.95 a month for their restrictive take it bundled or else Internet service.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
According to a quick googling, Tempe is the fifth-largest city in Arizona with a population of 160,000. It's considered part of the Phoenix metro area by the Census administration http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t3/ta b03.txt, but if it were its own, it would only rank, say around 180 or so (giving it some credit for a metro area).
Wake me when something important happens, like Peoria (#118 at about 350,000), or Shreveport (#105 at just under 400,000).
Design for Use, not Construction!
Yes, yes. Now I get the joke!
The next time I am in Montreal, I will spit on the ground and curse the citizens. Or maybe I will curse the ground and spit on the citizens.
I look forward to having a lovely time, my new friends! Hahahaha!
Why would anyone bother when they can get dialup for $10 these days? :P
"People" using "unnecessary" quotes should be "shot".
... then it makes sense for the city to do it.
My village of about 60,000 includes trash pickup as a village service, paid by taxpayers. It's cheaper for them to contract it like that than each homeowner to do it on their own (I don't think businesses get a free ride here, so they're subsidizing my trash heap, most likely).
The only ones whining about these things are the service providers hoping to make more money off individuals.
And like trash, everybody, not just residents, benefits. Tourists like the trash they can find on the internet.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Now that I've gotten over my "Tempe/ASU Pride", I'll try to make some observations. I think this is pretty good first of all (like I already stated). More cities should take the cue and follow Tempe. First, I think other cities in AZ should do it to. Preferrably bordering cities like Chandler, Scottsdale and Mesa and even Phoenix Metro. Chandler should team up with Intel (Intel drives a lot of Chandler's economy) to use WiMAX (something Intel is pushing anyway) around the city. That would be something I'd like to see. I also like the amount of choice and competition this move is offering. The pricing is really competitive. I like the fact that you get to choose between different providers - it certainly will help fuel good, healthy competition and you won't get stuck with just one person. It will definitely make the companies do their best to provide good service. Just having one wouldn't give any incentive. This network will also teach some valuable lessons about security. I'm sure there are a bunch of script kiddies at ASU who would love to try all kinds of crap on the network. It would definitely provide a good security stress test for the network.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Last I heard, Tempe was not its own metropolitan area, but a segment of the Phoenix metro. Perhaps it has outgrown its neighbor.
Yes, it's nice to see high-speed wireless access all over town, but for one, I don't like to see a city government throwing tax dollars at it when there are other things to worry about, and for another, why create a monopoly with public funds?
I would understand if it was going to offer free(or even cheap) access to things like city services, and public access-type content, but they're talking about offering commercial wireless access to the people in the city that can afford it. On top of that, they're talking about it costing about the same as commercial cable or DSL, which is unequivocally superior and more secure.
I like the idea of the whole town getting access, but I think they're going about it all wrong. It could be a valuable civil service, but instead, it's a sweetheart monopoly deal.
Quoth the article: It's official: Tempe will become the first major metropolitan area in the United States to deploy citywide wireless Internet access.
Philadelphia has the same project going. Philly's project I think still needs city council approval, but you can't lay claim to this title until the network is installed, tested and running.
I will say I won't be surprised if the philly project does get bogged down, but then again Mayor Street got the sports complex through city council a couple years back, he might be able to force this one through too.
Seems to be a little publicity grabbing going on here.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
city officials and public safety workers will get free wireless on the job
And public safety in Tempe plummets to new lows...
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
I'm probably going to ASU (Arizona State University) after I graduate from high school. Looks like I'll be able to get free wireless access by the time I'm there.
Le français vous intéresse?
I partly agree (muahahahahahaha)
Words of a bright disciple: "If you have to ask, my young friend, then you will never know."
Wish i lived there, just think of all the unsecured connections that will be around to leach off of! Sweet Deal!
the good thing about this for Tempeans is that they can get the 40 dollar broadband and can get use VOIP and download free videos. No need to pay for the telco's phone or the cable co's cable tv.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Tempe is a pretty small town, even as college towns go. It has exactly one eclectic coffee shop, exactly one music venue for jam bands, and just a couple of decent neighborhoods.
Now, if you were talking about "Tempe AND Scottsdale AND Mesa" you might be getting into "major metropolitan area" territory.
"Major metropolitan area" would be, Baltimore, or Denver.
Tempe Arizona is a smallish college town. Oh, and nightclubs close promptly at midnight and shut off the band and kick out the clientele. And there's no smoking. And all that stuff you heard about weed being legal there? That was only for about a month, and now any possession is a felony.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
this is a good idea, besides the socialist factor played out here all the time.
Face it, you are giving government control of the medium. You are giving them the power to censor the internet when they control it like this. You are already seeing the FEC trying to graple the internet for political speech (which the 1st ammendment is there to protect at its BASE!!!). Giving the government the power to distrubute connections is tantamount to giving them the rights to distribute newspapers and sell "spectrums" for TV/Radio stations to broadcast on (whcih they already do).
Look where the FCC has gone with its control over that medium, they have been cracking down on "questionable content" for a long time.
Be careful what you wish for.
Municipalities have a valuable role to play in filing this gap. Municipalities have a long history of providing necessary services for citizens and stimulating local businesses. In the 20th century, municipalities built power plants and telephone lines when private services did not move fast enough. Our competitive power and telecoms industries today demonstrate that these services by municipalities complement private industry rather than compete with it. In addition, municipalities have a long history of spending money to benefit their citizens and encourage business development. They should have the same opportunity to offer public hot spots and broadband access.
From 2001- 2004 the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage. Today, most U.S. homes can access only 'basic' broadband, among the slowest, most expensive and least reliable in the developed world. Nearly all Japanese have access to 'high-speed' broadband, with an average connection time 16 times faster than in the United States - for only about $22 a month. South Korea, which has the world's greatest percentage of broadband users, and urban China, which last year surpassed the U.S. in the number of broadband users.
The solution is not to protect the baby bells and cable companies from competition; it is instead to encourage more competition. Communities across the country are experimenting with ways to supplement private service. And these experiments are producing unexpected economic returns. Some are discovering that free wireless access increases the value of public spaces just as street lamps do. And just as street lamps don't make other types of lighting obsolete, free wireless access in public spaces won't kill demand for access in private spaces. Yet we will never recognize these externalities unless municipalities are free to experiment.
Source: NY Times & http://www.pbs.org/now/
The city of San Francisco has had F R E E wireless for well over a year!
Ironically, Tempe is very close To Scotsdale, which some people prefer to call Snobsdale. It's the "high class" part of greater Phoenix, with some of the fanciest hotels, restaurants, and malls around. I'm actually a bit surprised that it wasn't Scotsdale which announced plans for wireless broadband, considering that this is where you'd expect to see trendy executives on a business trip sipping a four dollar coffee and punching away at the corporate network via a wireless laptop at the hotel lobby.
But I am sure that the college-aged folks in Tempe will appreciate the ability to stay wired without all the wires. It's interesting news.
The only way to privatize Internet connections back to the old Mom and Pop ISP days is to have a single entity own and allow usage to all parties who wish to provide service.
However this entity may not sell line (or wireless) access directly to consumers, but rather lease the bandwidth or network infrastructure to the Providers.
"The Providers" (I'm doing those quotes with my hand by the way) in turn provide the IP addresses and other nice things like email servers, new groups, and various other things that ISP's provide at a local level. They would also provide technical support to the "end user" (more hand gestures here... I'm pretending I'm explaining this to Congress mind you).
The "providers" would compete internally providing support.
Now the "line owners" may or may not have to be a single entity. They could compete as such as Cable vs DSL does now, but currently most of the times the Cable company not owns the lines they provide the service so the "end user" has no choice in his provider. The same goes for his Phone Company and DSL though you do get a bit more choice on the matter with people like Speak Easy.
Think it as Teddy Roosevelt breaking up the Rail and steel barons of the 1900's. The only way sometimes to have Capitalism and Innovation is through some sort of company breaking regulation.
Though it's easier to just borrow your neighbors' unsecured wireless connection and forget economics all together. (You dirty commie!)
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
The city of Lompoc, California is getting citywide wireles from Lompoc Connect. Sure it's not a major city but it is further proof that wireless is growing. I had thought that DSL, cable, and satellite internet would solve most problems but I now think wireless can replace most of those technologies. Coincidentally my company of 10ish people is moving offices and our choice of internet providers is a wireless solution that offers double the bandwith at half the cost of a traditional solution - our 2nd option was a slower, more expensive 2 bonded T1s.
So what happens to John Q publics wireless network? If I happen to live near downtown and have my own wireless network, or a wireless net with my neighbors, aren't they going to be FUBARing my signal?
maybe this will help the condition of the network access provided in the dorms. I have a few friends living there who say the network sucks for anything other than basic web browsing, email, and IM. Games are next to impossible for my friends to play from the dorms.
They would like their Labor Theory of Value back.
$20!!!! PER MONTH!!????
One can circumvent that by lil' wardriving and getting it for free. 8.8 cents per mile for gasoline until an unsecured hotspot is detected.
YMMV.
If you can prove that god exists.....
The question is not whether private industry can run it better than public, (which it usually can IMO)
but whether or not government has the moral right to spend taxpayer money on such an item.
If they were to fund this using a volunteer group, I'd say that was fine. Otherwise yes I think it is immoral.
It is especially immoral if the City is already running a budget deficit. I look to City government for items such as police protection,
NOT internet access, and if they have to borrow money to do it then their priorities are just plain whacked out.
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
I just bought a home within the tempe city limits, right next to fry's electronics. Life is good. Er, wait, Fry's sucks ass. Well, atleast I can get a city wide wifi account.
but does ASU have babes? Then and only then would it seal the deal to move.
Our Council has awarded a contract to MobilePro to build-out a wireless network citywide. MobilePro will utilize some City infrastructure (mostly light poles) for the build-out. In exchange, we get free dedicated bandwidth for municipal services.
We're not an ISP. We're not involved with managing bandwidth, setting subscription rates, or filtering content. And despite speculation in several posts I've read, we're not subsidizing the project. This is a partnership with ASU and MobilePro.
Our website offers a more detailed explanation:
http://www.tempe.gov/business/wifi/
Tempe is landlocked for any further growth. along with the geographical features you mentioned, you also have to remember that tempe can't build up with out getting approval from the airport first. do i have to bring up the cardinals stadium fiasco?
go south you have chandler. go north, scottsdale. east is mesa and west is phoenix. tempe has no where to go.
with the high student population from arizona state, going wireless is actually a huge deal. i would like to see the city offer a cut rate to the student population.
In other words, you'd be wise to avoid speeding on I-10 as you drive into Phoenix.
Anyways, The Valley Of The Sun has all of the disadvantages of Los Angeles -- traffic, smog, crime, sprawl, ugly housing, etc -- without any of the cultural advantages.
Tempe is a city of about 150,000 people - larger than many major college towns. Scottsdale is a bit bigger at around 200,000. Mesa is about 400,000.
The metro Phoenix area is about 3.5 million, larger than metro Baltimore and Denver. It's the 15th-largest metro area in the US.
And Tempe has a lot of decent neighborhoods. It also has a few really crappy ones, mostly on the west side near the border with Phoenix. But so do most cities its size.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
Because if you have a cable modem in Tempe, as I do, then you have Cox High-Speed Internet. And my cable modem goes down every time there is a significant rain. So in my case, living within the few blocks that constitute "downtown" Tempe, stable wireless internet is vastly superior to $40 a month, irregular, overstressed, poorly supported cable service.
Yes, a dry 118 degree heat. How truly splendid.
That's probably why this isn't in court right now. Cox is getting their payoff **oops, I mean** involvement.
Don't expect this in other valley cities. With Phoenix's size, the costs involved to build a wireless network in a city of 1.5 million people & 450 square miles (larger in land area than LA) would be huge. If it cost more than $3 million then a public vote would be required.
Scottsdale & Paradise Valley might want to do this since they are ultra-wealthy cities, but most of the others are far more conservative (and poorer). They would consider this to be public money going to an area that should be only served by the private sector - generally considered a major no-no in these parts.
Our arch-conservative state legislature tends to think the same way. If a bill banning such municipal wi-fi networks were to be introduced, it would probably pass with flying colors. I think one state (Pennsylvania?) has or will be doing just that.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
The whole purpose of muni broadband was to have highspeed for everyone at affordable prices.
For that price , why not stick with plain old Aol or Netzero ?
So many communities have made good on the promise of municipal broadband, that industry is getting nervous about a competitor with a public motive, not a profit motive. The bills they are pushing in the statehouse would cripple new community efforts to offer broadband and strand much of Florida on the wrong side of the digital divide.
The telecom and cable companies backing this legislation thought it would be a cakewalk. But a determined grassroots coalition has emerged to defend the right of local communities to decide how to best serve their own citizens.
Join the effort. Sign the Free Press petition, and tell the Florida legislature: "Don't Mess with Community Internet."
http://www.freepress.net/action/FLinternet
Dayton, Ohio already has a wireless network online in the downtown, as reported on Slashdot. According to WHIO-TV in Dayton, "If this pilot program is successful, city leaders hope to expand it all cross the city."
Sure, maybe Tempe's plan is a little bolder, but Dayton is already deploying.
Population comparison:
Dayton: 166,179
Tempe: 158,625
Unless there are two cities in Arizonia called 'Tempe' I don't think you can call it a 'Major' metropolitan area. When I lived there is was a nice small college town.
Yeah, but after you've lived here a year everything under a hundred is nice and cool. Seriously, I wear jeans until about one hundred degrees, and then I'll think about breaking out the shorts.
I already have a mesh network in Tempe, AZ at 3501 S Mcclintock Dr. I use the Locustworld software and my own custom built meshboxes that all are standardized. Each node has 1 200mw card and 1 8dbi omni. My 3 nodes serve 11 people with speeds up and down to 3mbit. I have bandwidth tiers and a auth page and many many features like voip, vpn, cctv, dual radio option, set output power, etc. My nodes run 2048bit AES encryption node to node or vpn. Visit my website www.spydernet.org or email me jas2770@hotmail.com I am trying to get a business going but I need help as I am only 22 yrs old.
YES! i am buying into this the minute they release it! Good work Tempe... every now and then this town pulls its head out of its butt!
As an ASU student and Tempe resident i'm actually shocked, and also very excited, that this is happening here. I don't know whether my broke college ass will end up getting it seeing as i'm either at home where I already have wireless or on campus with their nice free wireless. I just hope it drives down the insane price I pay for cable internet. Cox is running rampant here with horrible customer service and no other options if you want decent speed.
Also, there are many reaons why this is happening in Tempe. Tempe by nature is more progressive than any other city in the valley. This is why Scottsdale and Chandler would never undertake such a project...there's no way taxpayers in those cities would put up with that kind of waste (especially Scottsdale). Also ASU is the backbone of everything in the city and no doubt hand a hand in encouraging this proposal to move forward.
yes, Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the US. And Tempe is notto far from downtown Phoenix
AC Said: " No doubt you also believe that police, fire, and ambulance service should be put out for bid to the private sector, along with municipal water and sewer service. How..., how anarchistic of you."
Ambulance services are 100% private in the Phoenix area, and many other parts of the country as well. Scottsdale and a few other smaller towns have a privately-owned for-profit fire department (Rural Metro), but that'll be changing in the next year or so, if it hasn't already. Rural Metro is going broke.
Microsoft's VP of Customer Service is Helen Waite. If you are having problems with their products go to Helen Waite.
...The rollout of WiMax wireless technology.
Unlike 802.11x-based WiFi, 802.16/802.20-based WiMax can cover a large metropolitan area with only a few antenna arrays. In short, instead of needing many hundreds of WiFi "hotspots" to cover Tempe, AZ, they could cover that same city with 8-10 WiMax antenna arrays.
ummm are you completelytalking out of your butt? Small College town? It is part of a major metro area that consists of the 5th largest city in the US and that college happens to be the college with either the 1st or 2nd highest enrollment depending on how you slice it. I wouldnt classify it as a small college town... Grinnell, Iowa is a small college town. And what the heck are you talking about. Last call is at 2am (sure use to be at 1 but we finally moved past that) and bars stay open that long. No smoking in doors but there is out doors. Although i dont like that law in principle it makes all of our places nicer to be. And the reason medicinal mary-j isnt legal is because of threats from the federal government. but on top of this, what the heck does it have to do with ANYthing? I could point out a thousand lame things about all sorts of citys but that doesnt mean jack.
I think it is probably legal if it is a CO-OP and not government owned. I wonder why that hasn't caught on?
Party at O'zorgnax's Pub! Buy me a Slurmtini aye?
I've put up a collective of media links at http://tempewifi.com