MuniWireless

Marion, North Carolina is offering free Wi-Fi service in its downtown area. The network was set up by Trificient Technologies, which was one of the respondents to an RFP issued by the city. The city used a grant from the North Carolina STEP Program to pay for the cost of deployment. According to the Asheville Citizen Times, the service is available along Main Street with speeds varying from 1.5 Mbps to 6 Mbps.

ConnectAkron launches downtown Wi-Fi hotzone

Meanwhile in Akron, Ohio,…

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…

Dublin and Gahanna, Ohio will be getting citywide wireless networks by 2009, thanks to the city councils’ approval of contracts with DHB Networks. The cities are following the anchor tenancy model whereby DHB Networks does not bear all of the cost of deployment. The cities are paying part of the cost of building the network.

Details of the deployments

(1) Gahanna is a new project for DHB. There is no existing citywide network. DHB responded to the city’s RFP and won…

Akron, Ohio will be the first community to receive a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for the deployment of a free public Wi-Fi network that covers 12 square miles, including downtown. The Knight Foundation pledged $25 million to set up the Knight Center for Digital Excellence whose goal is to fund community broadband networks, collect and share international best practices online with communities. According to the press release, “the center will be run by OneCommunity, a…

A New York think tank focused on broadband’s contributions to economic growth  has named the president and CEO of Cleveland’s OneCommunity “Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year for 2008.”

OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization focused on using information technologies to improve the quality of life and economic development in Northeast Ohio communities.

The  Intelligent Community Forum is presenting the award to Scot Rourke at a ceremony today in Cleveland. Rourke will address the ICF’s annual Building the Broadband Economy summit in New York City on…

The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority will launch a three-month pilot program providing free Wi-Fi service to commuters aboard the Kings Island Express, one of the busiest suburban bus routes from Cincinnati’s northernmost suburbs to the city’s downtown.  According to a news release issued today, neither taxpayer funds nor bus fares are being used to finance the program. Details will be released at a media event planned for Wednesday. Expect this program to be funded, at least in part, by advertisers and…