V-Link uses Colubris gear to unwire Whistler, British Columbia: The resort town of Whistler, a few hours from my Seattle residence, is a glorious skiing community year-round (great snow in the winter, glaciers in the summer), and a hot-bed of hiking and biking in the summer. It's a logical place to have Wi-Fi.
A few weeks ago, it came out that various companies and the municipality were all trying to rig their own Wi-Fi networks at the same time, for somewhat different purposes. It looks like the town got its network out first: they're calling it Yodel. This first phase covers what V-Link is describing as 50 percent of the accommodations and public areas. Costs aren't discussed, except to note payment methods.
The Creekside development mentioned in the press release is an interesting side note. Whistler and Blackcomb used to be two separate ski areas, and they merged a few years ago. One pass gets you access to either or both mountains, and the gondolas in the Upper Village splay to either mountain. Creekside is an older, funkier chunk of condos and a few shops and restaurants a few miles from Whistler Village.
It's in need of a refresh (and a lot of construction has been going on there when I've been up in the last few years). It's not considered as prime, because although it's ski in/ski out, you have to take a long lift up over one side to get to the real mountain, and the ski out looks pretty grim on low coverage days.
With the Olympics coming to Vancouver in 2010, Whistler and the surrounding area will be a hotbed of hundreds of millions of dollars of construction -- if you didn't buy a condo here before, don't try to buy one now, I imagine. This Wi-Fi service and others that rise up will be taking advantage not only of 2 million yearly visitors and 10,000 residents, but also of the more sophisticated rush of contractors, athletes, and others who will be spending increasing amounts of time over the next six years up in B.C.