Minneapolis Wifi Launches
I saw in the newspaper yesterday that the Minneapolis Wifi network launched in one neighborhood of the city:
“Wireless Internet service is now available in the first section of the Minneapolis Wi-Fi network, near the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus. Construction downtown should be completed by this weekend and in final testing next week.”
To purchase the service for your home, the fee is $20 a month for speeds of 1MBps. However, to guarantee that speed, you need to either rent a special modem for $5 a month, or purchase it for $80. I don’t see this as a big deal for most people; you usually need a modem from the cable company anyways to get broadband.
From the article it sounds like the access was pretty good with a wifi enabled laptop that the writer took to ten random locations in the area. It will get more interesting when the service is released downtown as it becomes more difficult to get a good signal with all the buildings.
In another story about municipal wifi networks, foxnews.com mentions that many city wifi networks are failing due to lack of adoption. I think Minneapolis might be better off than some of the other cities mentioned because the network isn’t being run by the city; they’re just the biggest customer because they’ve agreed to purchase access for the police and fire deparments. US Internet is the one installing and operating the network so its a business rather than a taxpayer subsidized network.
It was also comforting to see this quote from the press release that US Internet released when they were chosen to operate the network last year:
“US Internet proposes a combination of systems: Wi-Fi for private use including most city users, a separate network for public safety, and WiMax for businesses and residences wanting speeds up to 60 megabits.”
I’m glad they’re talking about imlementing Wimax as well as standard wifi, that way they’ll be ready if and when Wimax becomes standard to roll that out to the general public.
