Wireless Philadelphia is a project that has been in development for several years, but which will not be finished until late 2006.
It seems such an agreeable proposition to everybody involved - cheap wi-fi for an entire city.
"A citizen will pay a base fee of $10 or $20 depending upon their income status, for access to the network," explained the city's chief information officer, Dianah Neff.
However, the project has stirred up a bees' nest, and has implications for the whole of America.
There are a lot of challenges to setting up municipal WiFi networks on a large scale. Probably the biggest challenge is who is going to pay for all of this. However, some successes on smaller scales have been achieved.
City officials in Tempe, Ariz., hosted a "Cutting the Wires" ceremony on Monday, marking the initial availability of Tempe's citywide wireless access network.
The WAZTempe (Wireless Access Zone Tempe) network, covering 40 square miles, provides Wi-Fi access to all local residents and businesses.
It also offers municipal services for Arizona State University personnel, as well as other city workers including police, fire and emergency, according to city officials
While in Tempe (a suburb of Phoenix, AZ), they are boasting WiFi to the local university, and emergency servies, the regular folks are paying $19.95/month for 3 months as the introductory rate. While this represents a competitive rate compared to other broadband solutions, this is not exactly free either. After the intro, the regular rate is $29.95/month. Hourly plans are also available.
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