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."

Comments

They're quiet because..

[geniusj]

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.

Local Broadband Supplies Should Not Worry

[$criptah]

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.

Go Canada

[Godboy_g]

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!

Re:I Don't See This as Something to Celebrate

[soupdevil]

OK, so what about power, gas, water, sewer, garbage? I don't see anything wrong with cities providing utilities. They should be able to run this at cost or at a profit, and they're providing a service that private industry hasn't gotten around to doing yet.

I still can't understand why slashdot thinks

[hsmith]

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.