The city of Chaska, Minnesota joins the elite list of cities offering it's habitant's cheap broadband wireless internet access by starting its own ISP. Starting September this year Chaska, a suburb of Minneapolis has started offering broadband WiFi services for as low as $16 a month (the average monthly price of a private broadband connection is $35). 200 powerful wireless access points are located on top of street-lights throughout the city. Tests conducted earlier yeilded an enthusiastic response from Chaskans. Upon registration (free) the residents are provided with a wireless bridge (again free) which can connect to the WiFi. About a 1000 households are participating currently and the city believes it will break even if a total of 1500 households enroll for the WiFi services. While the Chaska WiFi covers an area of 33 sq. kms, Philadelphia is experimenting with their own WiFi covering a staggering 345 sq kms!!
While educational institutions worldwide were in the lead in providing WiFi access within their campus, WiFi within city limits is fantastic. It's a result of the city authorities taking the initiative and actually implementing what they thought was good for their community. No doubt this will bolster the economic growth of the area as well. Cool. Me likes.
Posted by anya at September 7, 2004 08:35 PM | TrackBackThere was an interesting story that I heard on NPR this morning, where maverick architect Richard Florida(Yeah! that's his name!) believes in the 3Ts that are essential to a city's growth.
Technology, Tolerance (ie. liberal and intergrated cities) and Talent(attracting creative people).
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3893159
i wanna be a chaskan
Posted by: ajit at September 7, 2004 11:08 PMPhiladephia is thinking about 'FREE' Wi-Fi all over the city. I saw an interview of Mayor Street on TV the other day. He thinks of this as an incentive for people and companies to move to the city. Sounds like a great idea to me.
Posted by: Parag at September 8, 2004 08:15 AMOhh yeah the idea is definetly coool! I have always been thinking of the day when Wi-Fi access will be available just like radio. And again my fantasy of accessing the internet on public transport will be fulfilled time and again! :)
Posted by: pseudofreud at September 13, 2004 11:18 AM