MuniWireless

Reading the US mainstream press gives you the impression that deployments of municipal wireless networks came to a complete halt when EarthLink pulled out of the business. While it’s true that the rush to deploy municipal wireless in the US has died down, the opposite is happening in Asia - especially China - where cities are rolling out large-scale Wi-Fi networks in partnership with local carriers. The latest city to announce the completion of a municipal wireless network is Hangzhou…

Think unwiring a city the size of Philadelphia, San Francisco or Houston is a big deal? Trying unwiring a city that spans 6500 square miles and serves more than 12 million people — like Beijing. That’s what’s underway today as the city revs up for the Summer Olympics, with a team headed by service provider CECT-Chinacomm and infrastructure provider Azalea Networks having deployed the network’s first 800 to 1,000 wireless nodes. Azalea Networks CEO John Elms says Phase I of…