Girona, Spain is deploying a citywide Wi-Fi network for municipal applications. At present, the network is running in the Can Gibert del Pla and Santa Eugenia neighborhoods, but it is being expanded to cover the entire city (13 square kilometers).
The cost of the project will be about 1,000,000 €. This amount includes not only the deployment of the network nodes, but also some applications running on it. The network is still in a pilot phase, operated by the municipal IT services for internal uses. Girona’s municipal IT services will operate the network. No public access is allowed at this time, but studies are underway about how the municipality can benefit the community and visitors without competing with private Internet service providers.
The network is currently used by the police for video surveillance of municipal buildings and public areas. Local government workers and students in neighborhood schools are also using the network. The city wants to bring wireless connectivity to disadvantaged communities. Girona is using equipment from Tropos Networks; the systems integrator is Neomedia. According to the press release, other planned uses for the network are: mobile police communications and information access via PDAs and laptops; centralized traffic management and monitoring of public transit vehicles; parking monitoring and management; centralized water control for public gardens; and real-time information for tourists to access on PDAs around town.The City and Province of Girona and the Catalan government are paying for the deployment and operation of the network.
Read press release here.
I’ve been waiting since 2001 to see this come about, and have been publicly advocating and researching the possibly in an academic context since the summer of 2006. It’s about time!
Hopefully someone will get this right.