Comments on: Corpus Christi, Texas gets citywide Wi-Fi

By: ANTHONY

ANTHONY — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 10:30:29 +0000

As a Corpus Christi resident and college student, i find it extraordinary that we will have this kind of service in our city. Aslo the city has informed us that there will be public access available soon for free. But after a while there will be a very inexpensive charge to use the wireless service!!

By: Michael Williamson

Michael Williamson — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 02:43:36 +0000

Hmm… Critical services on 2.4 ghz and on 902-928 that rely on part 15 devices are just a BAD IDEA! This is fine for convenience, but remember any device operating under FCC part 15 has no recourse for interference problems, and furthermore must be shut down if it is interfering with a licensed service.

Both of these bands are shared with licensed services. While I really doubt you’ll encounter much interference from the 2.4 Ghz amateur radio band, you may encounter repeaters with as much as 20 – 50 watts (typical) on the 902-928 band.

By: Muniwireless

Muniwireless — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 19:33:14 +0000

Anthony Townsend of NYC Wireless says:

I don’t think it’s overkill to use mesh for meter reading. A lot of power utilities are deploying BPL, but not for consumers, for meter reading and smart power management. The $$ involved are enormous in terms of manpower and energy savings.

By: Joe McCoy

Joe McCoy — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 04:35:36 +0000

Indeed there is plenty of bandwidth to allow for a “subscriber access” model BUT….. given the fact that they are deploying a technology that does not support open access and security for utility and emergency usage in the same breath, they have little choice. Within the next 6 months the industry will yield product solutions to address those issues. Side note, with the ubiquitious coverage CC seeks to have, there is no need for GPS location applications. Trilateration and RFID will do what they are looking for at a fraction of the cost. The community deserves a great deal of praise for being leaders in their quest for a Community Enterprise Communication Solution. Good leadership.

By: John Cooper

John Cooper — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 02:14:57 +0000

Mesh is actually a practical technology, at least in my experience. I used to work for a company 7 years ago that did wireless automatic meter reading, or AMR as it was called back then. At that point, we used proprietary network technology from CellNet and it was very expensive. They went out of business. Tropos and other solutions have brought costs in line and make other solutions more feasible. But the multiple points of residential meters suggest mesh or perhaps broadband over power line at some point.

Check out a company, Energy Technology Group. They are using something similar to the Corpus Christi solution for meter reading data communication. From their website: http://www.etgroup.us/utility_solutions.htm

The key solution feature is the use of ETG‚Äôs mesh architecture for communications. ETG‚Äôs solution utilizes a point to multi-point fixed network based on 902-928 MHz spectrum wireless communications.

By: Om Malik on Broadband

Om Malik on Broadband — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:02:40 +0000

The MuniWireless Evangelist

What Glenn Fleishman is to WiFi, my pal Esme is to Muni Wireless networks. She tracks the business of unwired communities and municipalities with the tenacity of a long distance runner. She is currently guest blogging at The Industry Standard…