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Tempe, AZ To Provide Wireless Broadband

Posted by Zonk on from the they-won-one dept.

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."

4 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Go Canada by Godboy_g · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!!!
  2. What about the other rural areas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are a lot of other smaller cities that have already implemented this: http://chaska.net/
    in Minnesota, and Minneapolis is planning on rolling out a city-wide privately owned network soon:
    http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/5342733.htm l/

    Cool stuff either way!

  3. Re:I Don't See This as Something to Celebrate by Qzukk · · Score: 3, Informative

    At $20-$40 a month per subscriber, they'd have to have either a huge chunk of graft or have no subscribers to run the system into the red. If its the latter, then the system will probably end up just being run by the university. If its the former, some local news show will have some "Major Expose" and "blast the story wide open" on prime time tv where nobody will continue to care.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  4. A view from inside by Lurking+Grue · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'm an IT employee for the City of Tempe. There seems to be a bit of speculation about the new wireless agreement. Here's my unofficial summary of what's happening:

    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/