WiFi Update - No. 9

Where is WiFi headed? I don’t claim to have a crystal ball but one thing is for sure and that is that WiFi is making the Internet “always on” and extending it to more people and more devices at more locations. A number of us have predicted that WiFi would become like air and water in our communities. This week, the associated press, reported that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is considering plans to spend about $10 million to turn turn all 135 square miles of the "City of Brotherly Love" into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot. The story, by David Caruso, describes an ambitious plan which would result in placing hundreds or maybe thousands of wireless access points on the tops of lampposts.

The CIO for Philadelphia, Dianah Neff, says "It's a technology whose time is here." Other cities have announced similar plans but none as comprehensive as Philadelphia. Lev Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University, which is spearheading a WiFi project in Cleveland said, "We like to say it should be like the air you breathe - free and available everywhere. We look at this like PBS or NPR. It should be a public resource."

WiFi September 3, 2004 09:19 AM