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Philadelphia's Wi-Fi Back Online, Privately

Posted by kdawson on from the asymptotically-approaching-the-correct-model dept.

muellerr1 writes "A group of local Philadelphia investors is picking up where Earthlink left off last week. Earthlink abandoned their effort to provide municipal Wi-Fi access because they couldn't lure enough paying customers. The project won't use any additional taxpayer dollars, and the new investors are thinking of using advertisements and fees for business use to support free access for ordinary citizens." The private group won't estimate when the network might be completed (it's at 80%), saying it will take months to assess where the project is and what it needs.

6 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Other solutions on the horizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This probably should have been modded "funny" instead of "troll". There really are people suing to get wi-fi shut down because they claim to be allergic to it.

  2. TFA doesn't say anything about ads by Sloppy · · Score: 2, Informative
    muellerr1 writes:

    the new investors are thinking of using advertisements
    TFA doesn't say anything about ads. If it's true, it's cause for concern, since there's no way to implement that without altering packets.
    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  3. Re:Other solutions on the horizon by BadHaggis · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's why I use T-Mobile. They encourage tethering and were more than helpful in providing the information necessary to set it up. The caveat to this is I do pay a $20 monthly unlimited data fee, and they have never complained about the amount of data that I put through it.

    --
    Homo homini lupus
  4. Re:It failed because it sucked. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Maybe there was a windmill between his adapter and the other end of the link? Seriously, RF propagation is like black magic. You can learn the rules and get good enough to surprise people, but sometimes it's still guesswork and luck. At 2.4 GHz you can have some very complex multipath conditions and the location of your neighbors car could be the difference between a strong signal and none. Of course, adding a nice directional antenna to the adapter and pointing it at the other end should have solved most problems.

  5. Re:Other solutions on the horizon by Toll_Free · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have AT & T / Cingular as well.

    Well, originally I was a Cingular customer, but now have signed a new contract.

    My wife and I both have data plans, she has a Blackjack II, I have a HTC Wizard.

    I paid 60 a month extra for unlmtd data on Cingular, 50 a month now on AT & T. With this, I get 200 msg a month and otherwise, unlimited data, tethered or not.

    My only gripe is now that I have experienced her phone, being 3G, tethered on the laptops, I realize just how slow the EDGE and related technology is.

    But, I've never had a problem with Cingular or AT&T, and I've been tethering since the day I got the phone. Matter of fact, I realized the USB port on the last phone was dead because it wouldn't tether, not because it wouldn't charge.. charging worked fine.

    Blackjack II, total crap. Windows mobile NEEDS a touch screen.

    --Toll_Free

  6. Re:Other solutions on the horizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's all great until some moron who's "attuned to the Earth" sues them claiming that the wireless transmissions are geiving them bad vibrations and the dowsers claim this is totally fucking with their stick pointing duties. Have you been to Philly?

    I live here... The last thing we worry about is "bad vibrations", more likely we're afraid of random violence.

    Think I'm joking?

    http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080617_Police_seek_public_help_in_Beau_Zabel_s_death.html

    http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080617_Man__18__shot_after_high_school_graduation_at_Liacouras_Center.html

    These were only in the last few days.

    We're not Santa Fe...