14 DAY TRIAL // After trying unsuccessfully to create a municipal Wi-Fi network for almost four years, the city of Boston turns to installing patchwork of hotspots to provide free or low-cost high-speed wireless technology to the citizens. This week FreeFi Networks announced the launch of an upgraded advertiser supported Wi-Fi service at the Roxbury Community College, announcement that unveils the new effort. The project gathers into a partnership Microsoft/Hewlett Packard, as well as a Web-based college recruiting platform called Experience.com. On March 31st another hotspot, powered by BelAir Networks this time, has been formally switched on, the FreeFi Networks launch coming as a second one.
Through the Wi-Fi project, Boston lines up with a great number of large cities that have tried to settle up a municipal Wi-Fi network to cover the entire city area, but had to pull back in the end. Unsuccessful efforts can be noticed for San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., for instance, or the attempts in Portland, Ore. and Tempe, Ariz., that have all failed.
Roxbury Community College enjoys now the FreeFi Networks hotspot, deployed as a model with implications for other college sites as well as a prototype for Boston. Students are given the opportunity to to develop hands-on skills for technology careers through this project, which comes a part of a pilot partnership with Microsoft to evaluate ubiquitous Internet access in education setting.
The Boston plan, which needed $20 million to become reality, asked private and business donors to raise up funds to build the wireless network, a backhaul system, and fiber cabling for lots of buildings in the city. The non-profit Boston Foundation offered to help in raising money for the municipal Wi-Fi network deployment,taking notice that some million dollars had been raised in the last few years to offer computer services for Boston schools.
While the municipality worked this plan up, many hotspots popped up in public places like libraries and coffee shops all around Boston, and many of these offering free services. As an example, McDonalds and Starbucks have both announced plans to provide free service to the customers.
BelAir Networks used mesh gear for its installation, after successfully using it to develop large networks in Minneapolis, Minn., Toronto, London, and hundreds of smaller areas. In Boston, the installation serves as a part of the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods. BelAir's CTO Stephen Raymont noted in an interview last week that the company successfully covered the entire city of Minneapolis with a citywide Wi-Fi network spread over 57 square miles. We should notice that about 10% of the covered area of the Minneapolis network can't be served, as there are some gaps in the coverage. In Minneapolis, the city government decoded to give a hand to the network rollout, so it offered 4.9-GHz public safety access as well.
Besides material problems, some of the Boston's politics may also have had a part in the failure of the deployment of a citywide municipal Wi-Fi network.
"FreeFi Networks is helping to close this (digital) divide by providing its services to students that may otherwise not have access," said Terrence A. Gomes, president of the college, in a statement.