Tag: free wifi

Help Edmonton’s Free WiFi Project grow!

free wifi project As some of you know, I’m involved with the Free WiFi Project here in Edmonton (along with Eric, Rob, and Stephen). We’ve been slowly progressing things, trying to figure out how we’d like to grow the project and spread free wireless Internet access across the city. There are a few initiatives in the works, but one I’d like to point out is that anyone can now order a community router from our website!

It’s pretty straightforward. Just head over to the Help Us Expand page to learn more about how the whole system works and what the costs and benefits are (each community router costs $60). When you’re ready, simply click the order link and follow the instructions. You’ll first have to enter some personal details, such as your name and address. Next you’ll be taken off to PayPal to make a payment to us. Finally, we’ll confirm the address we’re going to ship the router to. Within about a week you should receive a package from us with some simple instructions on how to connect your new community router!

Simple right? We’d love to have you join the network! If you give it a shot and have any feedback for us on how to improve the process, please let me know in the comments below or contact me. We want to make it as easy and painless as possible.

Stay tuned for more good news from the Free WiFi Project. As always, you can see a list of our current locations here. Thank you in advance for supporting us!

Faster wireless, everywhere

As a tech geek I’m interested in a lot of things, but I have a particular interest in wireless technologies. I want to have the ability to connect to the Internet wherever I go, using whatever device I happen to have with me. Despite the progress we’ve made in recent years, that vision is still a long way from being realized. A couple of things I came across recently look promising though.

The first is an article in MIT’s Technology Review, discussing research to make wireless faster:

One way to achieve faster speeds is to harness the millimeter-wavelength frequency of the wireless spectrum, although this usually requires expensive and very complex equipment. Now, engineers at Battelle, a research and development firm based in Columbus, OH, have come up with a simpler way to send data through the air with millimeter-wave technology.

Apparently they’ve been able to achieve speeds of 10.6 gigabits-per-second in a point-to-point field test, with antennas 800 meters apart. In the lab, they’ve demonstrated 20 gigabit-per-second speeds. Those are fiber-like speeds! Of course this wouldn’t work for blanket-wireless (like a cell network), but it could have some really useful applications.

The second article discusses a new study by market researcher In-Stat:

In-Stat said that more than 294 million consumer electronics devices with Wi-Fi shipped in 2007. But that number is quickly growing and will likely reach 1 billion by 2012. The fastest-growing embedded Wi-Fi segment is mobile handsets. By 2011, dual-mode cell phones will surpass PCs as the largest category of Wi-Fi devices, the In-Stat report said.

The phenomenal growth of consumer electronics devices is nothing new, but the takeaway here is that wireless Internet access demand is going to grow quite a bit over the next few years. After all, what good is a device with Wi-Fi capabilities if there is no Wi-Fi network available? This is good news for the Free Wi-Fi project.

A world with faster, more ubiquitous wireless Internet access is a world I want to live in.

Where do you want free wireless Internet access in Edmonton?

free wifi Slowly but surely, the Free WiFi Project here in Edmonton is growing. We’ve added a number of new locations over the last week, including Boston Pizza on Jasper Avenue and 106th Street, Boston Pizza in Mayfield Common, and Transcend Coffee on the south side which just went live today. And despite being down for much of the week, our nodes at the Fringe are back up and should remain that way. We’ve learned quite a lot with that particular setup!

We need to expand the network to make it more useful and to fulfil our vision of free, accessible wireless Internet access for all Edmontonians. We’re actively working on that, checking out potential locations and getting some marketing information together. Still, I figure a little informal market research can’t hurt! So I’m asking you – where would you like to have free wireless Internet access in Edmonton?

I’m curious to know where you want to use it. We think cafes, restaurants, and similar locations are the most obvious, but maybe we’re missing something? We have received a few suggestions already, such as the Legislature grounds and more mobile setups like the Fringe.

Leave a comment here with your suggested locations, or use our contact form! Thanks!