Municipal Wi-Fi — once
hailed as the future of high-speed internet access — was dealt
another blow on Tuesday as EarthLink Inc. announced it was pulling
the plug on Philadelphia.
The Atlanta-based company said it
could not find a buyer for the $17 million U.S. network and talks to
give it to the city or a non-profit organization had failed.
Philadelphia officials said
maintaining the network, which allows users to access the internet
from virtually anywhere in the city core, would have cost taxpayers
millions of dollars a year. EarthLink said it even offered to
offload its Wi-Fi equipment to an unnamed party along with an
additional $1 million U.S.
"It's been an unfortunate
situation," EarthLink chief executive officer Rolla Huff told
the Associated Press. "It was a great idea a few years ago ...
but it's an idea that simply didn't make it."
EarthLink and the city announced
the ambitious plan to blanket the city with Wi-Fi four years ago.
The company also announced last year it was pulling the plug on a
similar network in Chicago because it was too expensive to cover the
city.
About 175 U.S. cities have full
or partial Wi-Fi networks while a few Canadian municipalities —
including Toronto, Ottawa and Fredericton — have networks of
varying sizes.
Toronto Hydro Telecom, which runs
the "One Zone" Wi-Fi network in Toronto's downtown core,
announced it was for sale in January
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One big cancer
zone?
robert.maxwell@tgtsolutions.comMore
information
Did you hear about the big new deal?
I'm talking about the deal that
will make the whole USA one
big hot spot?
In case you didn't see the story that
just developed this week here's
what's happening.
Sprint
and Clearwire have joined forces to build a new 'WiMax'
network.
Wi-Max is a new wireless technology made to reach way
beyond
anything in place today. Simply put, Wi-Max is Wi-Fi
on steroids.
Here's what I mean:
Bluetooth
technology will work up to a distance of about 30 feet.
A
Wi-Fi signal will work up to a distance of about 300 feet.
.
Now get ready for this. WiMax will work up to a distance
of
2 miles.
Anyway, the idea is to cover
whole metropolitan cities with a Wi-Max
signal.
The
goal is to make the USA one great big hot spot. This means
we're
all going to get blanketed with wireless radiation
whether we like
it or not 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.
This giant network will have "open access"
meaning anyone
with a compatible device will be able to
access it.
Web applications like email and videos will also
be supported.
So it'll be very popular and no doubt will
open up wireless
access to a much larger segment of the
population.
The founding companies hope to have Wi-Max
services available to
half the U.S. population by 2010 and
the whole USA shortly thereafter.
Who's involved in
this giant scheme besides Sprint and Clearwire?
Well,
Comcast is contributing $1.05 billion, Intel is contributing
$1
billion, Time Warner Cable is throwing in $550 million and
Google
another $500 million. Google has already invested
$600 million in
Clearwire previously.
So those
are your major players in this massive electropollution-
producing
machine. You can figure out why they're kicking in so
much
money by what they do. They know this is going to be a
massive
market and they want to capitalize.
We've got a lot of
work to do to educate others. You know, it's
30 miles of
Wi-Max today but it'll be 300 miles of something else
in a
year to two. That's just what technology does. Especially
when
there's no one around to look out for the safety of
all those who
will be blanketed by this giant Wi-Max cloud.
Where are you, FDA?
It's paramount that you protect
yourself from this invisible
but deadly toxin. It's coming
and you can't stop it. But you can
protect yourself. Our
children are the most vulnerable so that is
why I am
reaching out to you today.
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|
|
|
Sprint, Clearwire to build national
Wi-Max network
|
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Sprint (S)
and Clearwire (CLWR)
are forming a new company to build a nationwide "WiMax"
wireless network, with the goal of offering advanced wireless
Internet services to millions beginning next year, the
companies said Wednesday.
Google (GOOG),
Intel (INTC),
Comcast (CMCSA)
and Time Warner <A | |
...
