Wi-Pie in the sky? March 27, 2006
Posted by sjwillis in Geek Dinners, wireless.trackback
The Economist’s Technology Quarterly has some good coverage of American cities that are pursuing municipal wi-fi. Since some farmers in Washington state already have wi-fi hotspots as large as Rhode Island, our state is well positioned to implement an elegant solution here. I haven’t heard anything on RI-WINS in several months. Any interest in trying to get an update on state-wide wi-fi at an upcoming geek dinner?
I’d definitely like to hear more about what’s planned for RI-WI-FI; we could certainly use a big ol’ mesh draped over the state. But of course, that means we’d also be able to have statewide VoIP, and that might scare the telcos…
“An ambitious effort to create a wireless broadband network to cover the entire state of Rhode Island is moving towards the implementation stage as two trial networks are currently being established.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060405/tc_cmp/184428662
I want simple connectivity everywhere. Nothing I know of here plans that for you and me. (RI-WINS is for first responders, etc.)
I am on one of the testing teams for this project and cannot wait to start testing. I’ll have to come to one of the geek meets and let people know what’s happening with it. (I have yet to come to one but am very interested)
I am actually involved in the network engineering of the RI-WINDS project. In fact today we made room for the RI-WINDS equipment (router and fiber). I will also be testing the service. If anyone wants an update, I’ll be at the next meeting April 19th.
I forgot to mention:
In the link about RI-WINDS: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060405/tc_cmp/184428662
I work for OSHEAN:
Ocean State Higher Education Economic Development and Administrative Network
We are heading up the network engineering side and we are the primary ISP for the project. I think http://www.oshean.org has some info or articles on RI-WINDS.