MuniWireless

I don’t know whether to be thrilled or appalled every time I read (or post articles) about the growing popularity of wireless video surveillance in our cities. Yes, police officers now have additional ways to catch nasty people. But the growing need for these surveillance cameras is disturbing in itself and says that we are living in an increasingly lawless, violent society. What next — walled cities with electronic moats to keep out the undesirables?

Back to the story. Buffalo, New…

Coshocton County, Ohio has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the construction of a wireless broadband network to serve businesses, residents, and specified County owned facilities throughout the county. The primary goal of this RFP is to find a provider that can deliver wireless broadband access to parts of the county that do not have broadband. In addition, the county will use the network for its own operations.

Proposals should be submitted to Coshocton County Commissioners Office, 401 ½ Main…

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…

Statesboro, Georgia has issued a Request for Proposals, seeking an ISP to build and operate a citywide wireless network for educational, residential, commercial, municipal and public safety use. Initially the network will be used primarily for public safety, remote work order management, Digital Inclusion, residential and student Internet access.

According to the RFP, the city “prefers to own the network infrastructure, since it intends to pay for the cost of the infrastructure, using the grant that it received from the State…

Just when you thought everyone’s given up on municipal wireless networks, here comes Zhone Technologies with “high capacity, multi-service” metro Wi-Fi equipment (called SkyZhone) which uses 802.11n, MIMO and best of all, integrated DSL backhaul and line powering. This means you can install a SkyZhone access point anywhere there is a DSL line, no separate power line needed. SkyZhone comes in standalone or combined configurations using the 2.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz frequencies so it can be used for consumer,…

Craven County, North Carolina (pop. 95,000) is deploying a wireless broadband network that will initially connect five schools in rural areas. It will also be used for the police and fire departments. Recently, the county installed a fiber optic network but it does not reach all communities. As a result, they will also use wireless to connect those towns without fiber. Craven County has hired Windchannel to deploy the network.

Deploying wireless broadband networks makes sense in a lot of rural…