Portsmouth, New Hampshire, expands a one-year trial of free Wi-Fi in its downtown: I first heard about this on the radio program I was interviewed on yesterday on New Hampshire Public Radio (show archived at this page). The first year had 600 unique users connect to a free hotspot in the Market Square area. They're extending that and hoping for twice the users using donated services and hardware. The cost must be quite minimal. Now 600 people (not 600 sessions) only translates into an extra few people a day, on average, but Portsmouth is using whatever tools they have to increase traffic to the community. The fellow interviewed alongside me on the radio said that their big time is cyclical, every four years, when the primaries roll through the state, and that reporters were filing over the free Wi-Fi this last winter.
