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December 19, 2005

Who's Hot Today? Phoenix (Ariz.), the State of Maine, Aurora (Ill.), Farmers Branch (Tex.)

By Glenn Fleishman

Phoenix activates airport: The retro-futuristically named Sky Harbor International Airport has free Wi-Fi everywhere but at check-in. The airport is a hop, skip, and a jump from Tempe, which is unwiring entirely.

The state of Maine sets goal for rural broadband: The governor wants to extend broadband to a large portion of rural areas that have none now—places with five people or fewer per square mile by his definition. He also wants ubiquitous cell coverage, which will cost about $55 million. The article oddly omits mention of Midcoast Internet Solutions, which has been using relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment since 1999 to beam broadband all over. They serve a big chunk of Midcoast, which starts about an hour from Portland. (I lived in Midcoast Maine for two years in the early 90s: we still paid extra for Touchtone service back then to give you some idea of the state of telecom.) It does mention Ubiquitair, which serves the Casco Bay (Portland area).

Aurora, Ill., approves muni network: The city was first to electrify and now has $5.6 million budgeted for a municipal wireless network. They’ll also spend $7.8 for fiber optic connections among city buildings, which likely replaces a lot of fixed-line recurring costs. The city will use gaming proceeds to service the network debt, but expect it to pay for itself in reduced telecom charges over time.

Farmers Branch, Texas, hires Tempe-unwirer: The 12 square miles of this town near the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport will be lit up with a municipal network by NeoReach. This project explicitly promises voice, data, and video.

Posted by Glennf at December 19, 2005 1:38 PM

Categories: Who's Hot Today?

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