19.465 wireless cities (and fields)

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 465.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: Leo Robert Klein <leo_at_LEOKLEIN.COM> (26)
         Subject: Re: 19.459 wireless cities

   [2] From: "liz walter" <eawalter1_at_hotmail.com> (3)
         Subject: RE: 19.459 wireless cities

   [3] From: luismfernandez_at_cable.net.co (5)
         Subject: Re: 19.459 wireless cities

   [4] From: "Bleck, Brad" <BradB_at_spokanefalls.edu> (19)
         Subject: RE: 19.459 wireless cities

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:00:28 +0000
         From: Leo Robert Klein <leo_at_LEOKLEIN.COM>
         Subject: Re: 19.459 wireless cities

Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty
<willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>) wrote:

>A student here, Angelus Kocoshis, has pointed to a news item
>concerning the wireless network recently installed in New Orleans --
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051129/ap_on_hi_te/wireless_new_orleans.
> He comments that, "Though 128 is pretty slow, it's better than
>nothing. Perhaps the political will will exist to change the law too.
>Philadelphia tried to do this two years ago,
>and the phone and cable companies fought it tooth and nail." Are
>there any other examples of entire cities (or districts within
>cities) going wireless -- without first having to suffer destruction?

Willard,

There's been much talk of it here in our fair city of Chicago. As
one Alderman put it, "We're not tech specialists, but we know what
the neighborhoods need. If you want to apply for a job at Jewel-Osco
[i.e. the big supermarket chain] you have to get online. Teachers
need to communicate with parents online."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/krauss/cst-fin-krauss14.html

While that's undeniable logic to me, I have a feeling it'll be a
fight to the death with the regional phone monopoly, SBC.

I'd only like to point out that 128kbs is darn slow though standard
DSL around here -- provided by said phone monopoly -- is a somnolent 384kps.

LEO

-- -------------
Leo Robert Klein
www.leoklein.com

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:01:27 +0000
         From: "liz walter" <eawalter1_at_hotmail.com>
         Subject: RE: 19.459 wireless cities

Rio Rancho sits just north of Albuquerque here in New Mexico. It is home to
a huge Intel manufacturing plant. They went wireless last year.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1699517,00.asp

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:02:06 +0000
         From: luismfernandez_at_cable.net.co
         Subject: Re: 19.459 wireless cities

Some times it is necesary to have catastrophic results in order to
force a positive change. It is sad, but it happens. In my country a
complete 30,000 thousand people town had to be buried by a mass of
mud and rocks to realize that it was necesary to create an agency
which continuosly checks vulcano activity. Luis Fernandez

--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:02:43 +0000
         From: "Bleck, Brad" <BradB_at_spokanefalls.edu>
         Subject: RE: 19.459 wireless cities

I live and teach in Spokane, Washington. For those unfamiliar with
the city (pronounced Spo-can by the way), we are in the NE corner of
Washington state, just south of the Canadian border and just west of
the Idaho state border. The name comes from one of the several Native
American tribes in the region.

A couple of years back, Spokane, along with Vivato Communications, or
whatever they call themselves, created the largest urban wireless
hotspot at the time, some 200 square blocks. I'm not sure if it's the
largest any longer; probably not. It covers most of the city downtown
core and hospital district and provides two hours of daily free use
to anyone with a wireless connection.

There is also a large rural region, mostly wheat farms, in SE
Washington, NE Oregon, and maybe the adjoining section of Idaho, that
has wireless coverage. It isn't over a city, but vast fields of wheat
and whatever else is being grown. Neither of these are the result of
a tragedy of any sort, except maybe isolation from larger population centers.

Bradley
Spokane Falls CC

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Received on Thu Dec 01 2005 - 02:34:23 EST