RSSPhilly Wi-Fi Test a Success
By Ed Oswald | Published May 25, 2007, 11:20 AM
Officials in the city of Philadelphia said Thursday that tests for its citywide Wi-Fi project were successful, which means the city will move forward with deploying the network through the rest of the city.
The testbed comprised a 15-square mile area including the central part of the city and some of its less affluent sections to the northeast. When completed, the Earthlink-managed Wi-Fi network will cover 135 square miles.
Access will be provided at $21.95 per month, or $9.95 per month if the resident qualifies for low-income assistance. Access from public outdoor spaces and for those working in community programs will both be offered free of charge.
Download speeds of 1MBps will be provided for a cheaper rate and in the free zones, with a faster 3MBps download service being made available at the aforementioned rate.
Officials say they are aiming to provide Internet access for more than 300,000 households on the network by the end of the month. According to census data, a quarter of its residents live below the poverty line, one of the highest rates in the country.
"This is a major step toward achieving our vision of The Entire City Connected," said Greg Goldman, CEO, Wireless Philadelphia.
As well as EarthLink, residents of the city can also purchase services through any of the company's partners, including PeoplePC, DirecTV, SuperPA.net, and Pennsylvania Online, officials said.
With Filthly's long blocks, its hard to even get and maintain a signal mid block, they place the transmitters on pools that are at the ends of blocks to share the signal. On top of that, with the signal so weak in the street, forget about using your connection indoors. Sometimes I put on net stumbler and just watch how poor it is. I get a better signal indoors from mastbaum high school which is a couple blocks away.
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|Thank god they didn't pick Newark, NJ, otherwise the installers of the WAP would be getting ripped out before they even get it up on the pole :). Now that city would have been a true test market if they could survive it :)
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|Success where? Most of the time you can't even find their signals. But strangely, at love park the signal is strong, but you don't want to walk around with a laptop. It's an open invitation to get mugged.
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|That's why they're testing it in Philly, looks like you're the userbase. :-)
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|I think they chose Philly as much to test the survivability factor as well as performance (which has been tested to death).
The challenge, to see if they can get it to function before the equipment gets ripped off and stripped for the copper clad circuit boards! ;-))
Besides, their first choice, Beirut, is a long ways away with a few other concerns right now. ;-))
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