FREE WiFi projects

**O3H** · June-23-17, 04:00 PM

Will this ever catch on - or doomed to the archives ?
Some have proposed free wifi in parks, cities, etc., etc.

http://muniwireless.com/2006/01/09/u...eless-project/

It IS actually taking place around the world

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/new...ng-free-wi-fi/

**RaumVogel** · June-26-17, 02:45 AM

If Google fiber isn't allowed to expand...nothing will.Our country is corrupted by money...and we will pay.

**Richard** · June-26-17, 10:56 AM

Years ago,I am thinking late 90s early 2000,cities like St Cloud Fl which was touted as having the best city wide wi-fi excess in the country,actually had wireless excess for the entire city verses this form of persey hot spots.

You had to be by a window or sitting on the front porch but it was advailable for all.It lasted for about a year before being discontinued,same as the city of Kissimmee.

Rural is as of now either DSL or dish and because the telecoms have been cleared to deactivate the copper lines,which would only leave Spotty Dish for phone and Internet service,which kills emergency contact.

The push is for rural broadband which is very expensive for the companies because of a small costumer base and cost to implement.

City wide wi-fi was paid through property taxes but you figure the massive pushback and lobbying by service providers probably had a lot to do with the discontinuation of it.

Japan has had a little 6" dish that you put on the kitchen window ledge that pulls in over 200 free tv channels and wi-fi for over 20 years.

It can be done but obviously because of the providers there is a problem,but because everything is becoming internet based,government,job applications etc. they are going to have to provide a solution.

Funny how my friend in the U.K. Can call me international on his land line for free, but in this country they still charge.

**Honky Tonk** · June-26-17, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

same as the city of Kissimmee...

That's not a real name, is it?

**Richard** · June-26-17, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

That's not a real name, is it?

Lol,locals pronounce it KISS-a-me.

Home of Walt Disney world,I still have a house there but do not speak the language so I moved.

It was a cow town and still had hitching posts downtown when Walt came there,he took the city leaders to California and told them this is what your city will look like after I build so prepare your city for it.

So they came back and bought up all the land for themselves and had the bank call in the notes on a whole bunch of residents and kicked them out so Walt could buy the land,those houses or what is left of them are not on the tour but still exist.

In a short time it went from a tiny redneck cow town to what it is today with English as a second language.

**O3H** · June-26-17, 04:51 PM

IF, and I say IF, the big ol' D is to be a Technology Mecca,
why not build in some free WiFI into the development/architecture ?

Hell, GOOGLE has established a presence in Michigan already.
Why not build on the momentum of internet, connectivity, technology. ?

Google confirmed that it was opening an R&D center in Novi, Michigan

**JBMcB** · June-26-17, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

It was a cow town and still had hitching posts downtown when Walt came there,he took the city leaders to California and told them this is what your city will look like after I build so prepare your city for it.

What? Disney didn't tell anyone, he bought up land via a half dozen shell corporations. If anyone knew he was building another theme park people would have charged him ten times what he paid for the land. A tiny chunk of Kissimee proper was eaten up by the Ready Creek Improvement district, downtown Kissimee is two miles southeast. Most of the WDW land was unincorporated - mostly swamp and orange orchards on the other side of I-4.

**Richard** · June-26-17, 08:56 PM

It was ranch land,citrus bank that is owned by the ranchers held most of the deeds.The public did not know what was going on but it would have been hard to acquire all of those deeds without the main mortgage holder knowing what was going on.

There were only about 6 families at that time that controlled all of the beef,citrus and gas stations in the entire area.It was a tiny town back then,somebody sells a piece of property and the whole town knows about it before dark.

Here is the time line

1964

First two purchases were from 3 Orlando home builders and a cattle ranch both owned by the people on the board of Citrus bank at the time.

http://kpolsson.com/wdworld/

**Pat001** · June-27-17, 07:37 AM

Sometime around the year 2005, L. Brooks Patterson tried to cut a deal with a company that would provide free wireless for all of Oakland County. The project was named "Wireless Oakland." Under terms of the deal, Oakland county would provide infrastructure [[towers and other locations for wireless equipment and antennas) free of charge, and in return, the firm would provide free “basic” wireless internet access to the entire county. The firm was supposed to make money by charging Oakland residents for services over and above the basic wireless. If I recall, this plan was pilot tested in Pontiac, Troy, Oak Park, and a few other communities but the plan never got beyond the pilot stage.

**EastsideAl** · June-27-17, 09:40 AM

These systems never get built well enough to handle the traffic they will need to handle over the distances they need to cover. And the local telecoms and cable companies generally make sure they don't, and sell very technologically limited systems to gullible and unsophisticated governments.

Speaking of Florida, where my grandparents had a place in Hollywood the city and its "partner" built, with much ballyhoo, a wifi system that was supposed to cover the entire city with utopian connectivity. From day one the system didn't work worth a damn, and they eventually had to turn much of it off because it was messing up residents' connectivity to their home wifi networks.

**Richard** · June-27-17, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

These systems never get built well enough to handle the traffic they will need to handle over the distances they need to cover. And the local telecoms and cable companies generally make sure they don't, and sell very technologically limited systems to gullible and unsophisticated governments.

Speaking of Florida, where my grandparents had a place in Hollywood the city and its "partner" built, with much ballyhoo, a wifi system that was supposed to cover the entire city with utopian connectivity. From day one the system didn't work worth a damn, and they eventually had to turn much of it off because it was messing up residents' connectivity to their home wifi networks.

Agreed,all the ones I mentioned only lasted a year or so,horrible at peak times.

The article mentioned here are basic hot spots,the one that you stand on the sidewalk and use the touch screen is nuts,but it has restricted use,it would be like the old days waiting for the phone booth.

The way the city wide one was set up is you get free crappy internet then if you want better you hook up with a regular provider,but then you are paying twice,increased property taxes on the free one then haveing to pay also for the good one.

**EastsideAl** · June-27-17, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

The article mentioned here are basic hot spots,the one that you stand on the sidewalk and use the touch screen is nuts,but it has restricted use,it would be like the old days waiting for the phone booth.

They put a bunch of such kiosks in on sidewalks all over Manhattan, where pay phones once stood. For the most part the ones I hooked up to worked pretty well too, throwing a usable wifi signal for a ring of about 25 feet. But they've also become a magnet for homeless people, some of whom are just charging phones or trying to do things that people need to do in a world that has become increasingly internet-centric, and some who were browsing porn [[until the city began filtering sites).

**Richard** · June-27-17, 03:43 PM

We have some Caribbean restaurants in the African American community and have public wi-fi for the customers, but there are several school children that come in and do thier homework after school.They do not bother anybody.

The schools are giving out homework assignments that require internet but maybe do not realize that not everybody can afford it.

I know the girls behind the counter used to slip them sodas [[pop) so we put inventory controls on the soda but then stocked 100% fruit juices and made it clear that there were no inventory controls on that.

The problem with all of this technology is that if one cannot use it,it becomes a disadvantage.

There are no libraries close by as an alternative,not sure what the answer is in providing something that is required but not available,if that makes sense.