Please don't try to escape your busy lives by visiting an island miles off-shore: Call me Tropos. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no Internet access, and nothing particular to interest me on my Blackberry, I thought I would surf about a little and see the watery part of the world wide web.
It is a way I have of driving off the spam and regulating my network traffic. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to surf the Web as soon as I can.
This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the Internet. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards Tim Berners-Lee with me.
Apologies to my dear Mr. Melville.
A Nantucket startup plans to install Tropos equipment and use Airpath's back-end to offer service across 800 acres on the island and out to marinas and surrounding waters. The plan requires public approval because of certain aspects of occupying space. Since the FCC recently ruled that only it can oversee unlicensed spectrum, I have to assume that Wi-Fi Blast, the WISP, needs access to poles or public property. (If not, they should read that FCC decision.)
The article includes a great baseline number: a resort on the island installed Wi-Fi last year at its properties and grossed $16,000 so far this year at $10 a day and $60 per month. About 50,000 people visit Nantucket in its busy summer season. Pricing hasn't yet been set. Roaming with other Airpath locations is part of the deal, too.
The arrival of widespread WiFi access on the playground of beautiful people and billionaires would mark a watershed in commercial WiFi technology. Hardly.