Posted by: Jason O'Grady
Date: Thursday, September 9th, 2004, 09:10
Category: Archive

Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, an unapologetic technology buff with a Blackberry tethered to him at all times, has appointed a 14-member committee to review his city’s plan to turn Philly into the world’s largest wireless Internet hot spot. City officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into a WiFi-connected hotspot at a cost of about $10 million.

The ambitious plan, now in the works, would involve placing hundreds, or maybe thousands of small transmitters around the city — probably atop lampposts. Each would be capable of communicating with the wireless networking cards that now come standard with many computers.
Once complete, the network would deliver broadband Internet almost anywhere radio waves can travel — including poor neighborhoods where high-speed Internet access is now rare.
And the city would likely offer the service either for free, or at costs far lower than the $35 to $60 a month charged by commercial providers, said the city’s chief information officer, Dianah Neff.

As you already may know, Philadelphia is the home of the PowerPage and this news is exciting on several levels for residents of “the city of brotherly love.”
Although it is not entirely surprising that Philly is mulling installing the largest WiFi network in the world when you consider that in 1946 Philadelphia became home to the first computer and that Pennsylvania is the first state of the fifty United States to list their web site URL on a license plate.
Personally, I can’t wait to surf the Web wirelessly while enjoying cheesesteaks, water ice, soft pretzels and TastyKakes.
Read more at CNN.com.

Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, an unapologetic technology buff with a Blackberry tethered to him at all times, has appointed a 14-member committee to review his city’s plan to turn Philly into the world’s largest wireless Internet hot spot. City officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into a WiFi-connected hotspot at a cost of about $10 million.

The ambitious plan, now in the works, would involve placing hundreds, or maybe thousands of small transmitters around the city — probably atop lampposts. Each would be capable of communicating with the wireless networking cards that now come standard with many computers.
Once complete, the network would deliver broadband Internet almost anywhere radio waves can travel — including poor neighborhoods where high-speed Internet access is now rare.
And the city would likely offer the service either for free, or at costs far lower than the $35 to $60 a month charged by commercial providers, said the city’s chief information officer, Dianah Neff.

As you already may know, Philadelphia is the home of the PowerPage and this news is exciting on several levels for residents of “the city of brotherly love.”
Although it is not entirely surprising that Philly is mulling installing the largest WiFi network in the world when you consider that in 1946 Philadelphia became home to the first computer and that Pennsylvania is the first state of the fifty United States to list their web site URL on a license plate.
Personally, I can’t wait to surf the Web wirelessly while enjoying cheesesteaks, water ice, soft pretzels and TastyKakes.
Read more at CNN.com.