Burbank, California is offering free Wi-Fi access in its downtown area starting 1 May 2005. It becomes the first municipality in the San Fernando Valley to have a free Wi-Fi hotzone. Burbank is located in greater Los Angeles and is home to Warner Brothers, NBC and other movie studios and entertainment companies. Burbank, California is offering free Wi-Fi access in its downtown area starting 1 May 2005. It becomes the first municipality in the San Fernando Valley to have a free Wi-Fi hotzone. Burbank is located in greater Los Angeles and is home to Warner Brothers, NBC and other movie studios and entertainment companies.
The Wi-Fi hotzone covers one square mile (including the Holiday Inn on Angeleno Avenue) up to the Burbank Town Center (a large shopping mall). Included is every street, sidewalk, bench, caf?©, office and retail store along the way. Since the weather is usually warm and dry in LA, I expect a lot of people to use the free outdoor Wi-Fi service.
The Wi-Fi network is comprised of commercial-grade M-Gravity ruggedized 802.11b outdoor access points. The access points are connected to a Proxim MP.11a system. A Bluesocket Wireless Gateway is used to authenticate users and control session limits and bandwidth.
Downtown Burbank’s Wi-Fi hotspot is funded by the City of Burbank’s Redevelopment Agency in partnership with Downtown Burbank Partnership, Inc., the nonprofit Property-based Business Improvement District (P-BID) whose purpose is to improve Downtown Burbank through capital programs, maintenance & security, marketing & promotions and advocacy & administration.
If anyone has used the Burbank Wi-Fi, whats the speed, upstream and downstream?