This month, SeattleWireless TV features the New Zealand Wi-Fi treasure hunt and a Washington county's law enforcement network: In New Zealand, the community group did a treasure hunt where participants raced to find APs. They were given the rough coordinates of the first AP then clues to find the next AP were found in each AP's SSID.
In Yakima County, Washington, various county agencies have built a Wi-Fi network made up of eight Cisco APs so that law enforcement agencies can share data. Police can share and access data such as mug shots, warrant information, and license plates. The APs are hung on city-owned facilities like water towers. Cops save around $50 per month per car by using the Wi-Fi network instead of CDPD, the old data network offered by some cellular operators. The cities in the counties also save as much as $700 a month because they aren't using the frame relay networks they did use. The city works with residents who may have their own Wi-Fi networks to ensure the best performance on all the networks.