AT&T hooks up Riverside, CA with free municipal wifi

Posted by Will on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 1:30 pm under Cingular/AT&T, Partnerships, Services
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IntoMobile

Life in the Inland Empire is about to get a little sweeter. The booming city of Riverside, CA., with its 300,000 residents, will happy to hear that AT&T is working with MetroFi to bring free public wireless internet access to the entire city. MetroFi's experience in deploying city-wide wireless networks will prove invaluable in covering the 55-square mile area of Riverside with the WiFi-mesh hardware on top of city-owned power poles and other infrastructure. But, as with everythign in life, the free public WiFi system will not come without strings. The MetroFi service will require citizens to endure a bit of advertising in exchange for free internet. AT&T will also offer a subscription-based service for visitors to the city - $7.99 per day or $15.99 for a weekly pass.

AT&T's move to provide free public WiFi goes against staunch opposition from industry-rival Verizon. Verizon, among others, see free municipal WiFi as a threat to their landline-based premium services - so AT&T may be trying to one-up their enemy.

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BS Ranch Perspective

I wonder if this is the move of the future for all Interenet services, I will say that Riverside might be one of the cities that could be considered largely to be one of the largest cities in the nation to be the fastest growing city in California, largely because they Offer the Internet to anyone that Has a Wireless Router for their home computer, or a Lap Top Computer!!

The Internet is something that the City's Police, Fire, Maintenence, and also their Humain Services can all use in their Trucks. they can get the new Panasonic Lap Top that is largely indistructable, Purchased by the city and workes through a city network, reference a private network, that is incripted via a 128 bit incripted Site, that will allow the city to work on a private site and be able to conduct city business all over the city on a system that is offered to everyone that has a computer, Especially a Lap Top Computer that has an Internal Antenna, to collect and interchange the Internet for everyone in the city!!

I beleive that it will be and is the wave of the future, No More Cable Internet, No more Dial up Internet, NO MORE MAKING MONEY OFF OF ISP's any more!!

The City can and will benefit because the Police Department can do all their Report Writing over the internet, In some cases the report of an incident will be on file before the party involved goes to the station and picks up their copy of the report.

The Fire Department can do all their reporting over the same network and the same will be true, the people that have had their property damaged by fire depending on the size of the fire, they could be able to pick up their bit of property from the front desk of the City's Fire Agency and they will know if the Fire Department has felt that there Fire was deliberate or not.

Maintenance all the same thing and for Humain Services, again it all is the same thing, they can and will be more efficient and more on time with their report writing and turning in of their reports. It will not take long for them to see what I am talking about.

Soon, Rialto City Council will hear about the PRO's and Con's that the City of Riverside has had with their own Internet Network Set up for freee..!!

BS Ranch