Worcester's mayor wants Wi-Fi, expanded commuter rail: Mayor Timothy P. Murray is running for lt. gov., and he wants more statewide commuter rail with onboard Internet access an important component for encouraging use. He proposes the state buy freight rail tracks to gain more control over use.
Austin's Wi-Fi network's first phase up and running: The network was built for an upcoming information technology conference that will leave behind the nucleus of what the city wants to have become a metro-scale network. Cisco donated the early equipment, which comprises 28 access points.
Orlando plans 9 sq. mi. network: Despite being cited as a failure by another city in Florida a few days ago. The service will be free, throttled to a certain level to be determined, but which apparently could be as low as "two times dial-up" (128 Kbps?). The firm Smart City will pay something like a franchise fee--6 percent of gross revenue--to operate the service.
Tempe's University of Arizona will build its own network: Despite earlier speculation that NeoReach would extend its Tempe network into the UA campus, this story makes it sound as if the university will build its own network using student fees. The cost will be $65 per year per student and $6.9m overall. My mistake: The dateline is Tempe but the University of Arizona (UA) is in Tucson; Arizona State (ASU) is in Tempe.
Montreal suggests waiting to see what other cities do before leaping into metro-scale service: Montreal's community wireless group has installed 70 hotspots, and the city is apparently in no rush to be the schlemazel who suffers the missteps of a pioneer. The city has no timeline for such a service, and one of the founders of Île Sans Fil (that would be "island without strings" or "wireless island") thinks the city should follow their model. Update: See comment below. The fellow quoted in the story from the community wireless group says the reporter mischaracterized his opinions.
Sorry - but that's not really true. It doesn't reflect our group's position at all. It was just a poor job by the reporter. I was trying to explain things along the lines of Anthony Townsend's recent post about concerns regarding add-supported muni wireless.