City takes fast track to high-speed access

Thomas Lee thought it was ridiculous that he couldn’t get high-speed Internet access at his Cerritos home. Lee lives in the heart of this busy Los Angeles suburb, which has a reputation for being high-tech.

But his neighborhood, like many in Cerritos, is not served by cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) providers because it’s too expensive or difficult for them to reach.

By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-31-cerritos_x.htm

Lee complained to City Hall. Dozens of his neighbors did, too. So city officials decided to bypass cable and DSL companies and bring broadband directly to all 52,000 residents.

All it took was Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi, or wireless Internet, sends Web pages through the air via radio waves. The emerging technology is best known for providing wire-free Web connections in coffee shops and airports. But it can also bring broadband to homes and offices.

Cerritos last week revealed a wireless network that covers the city’s more than eight square miles. That makes it one of a handful of cities to offer Wi-Fi all over town. There are hundreds of Wi-Fi networks across the country, but most are private and limited to a few neighborhoods.

Wi-Fi start-up Aiirmesh built the network with help from city officials. Its backbone: dozens of toaster-oven-size antennas perched on buildings, traffic signals and streetlights.

Anyone in the city can get a DSL-quality Internet connection, if they have a Wi-Fi enabled laptop. The network works the same on a street corner as it does inside homes. Viewing city Web sites is free; access to the entire Internet costs about $30 a month.

Aiirmesh even sells an adapter, for about $100, that lets personal computers without built-in Wi-Fi use the network. It’s a small receiving antenna that plugs into the back of the PC, similar to how a cable modem would.

For Lee, who owns an international shipping company, it means he can work at home in the evenings, when many of his overseas clients are awake. His 22-year-old son, Wayne, uses it to surf the Internet and e-mail friends. "We really like it," Thomas Lee says.

Low cost spurs growth

Wi-Fi is in its infancy, but cities like Cerritos are propelling it forward fast. Wi-Fi can be the cheapest, easiest way to bring Internet access to under-serviced areas. It can also attract laptop users and businesses to downtowns and give communities a high-tech cachet.

For a major communications system, Wi-Fi is remarkably easy to install. Wired broadband networks usually require a city or company to lay expensive cable underground. Wi-Fi antennas can be plopped almost anywhere there is electricity. "You can deploy quickly. You don’t have to dig anything up," says Aiirmesh CEO Stan Hirschman.

And it’s cheap. Cable and DSL companies told Cerritos it would cost millions of dollars to bring broadband to all residents. The Wi-Fi system cost "tens of thousands," Hirschman says.

Wi-Fi’s ease of use also makes it easy for start-ups such as Aiirmesh to get into the business. The idea for the company came from several former employees of an early wireless service, which uses a technology similar to Wi-Fi. They partnered with Hirschman, a veteran entrepreneur behind several computer companies. Aiirmesh hopes to get started on eight to 10 Cerritos-size projects by the end of the year.

But they face dozens of competitors, most similarly scrappy upstarts with names such as Wayport and Verge Wireless Networks.

The negatives

Wi-Fi does have some drawbacks. It’s less secure than DSL or cable, since anyone with a Wi-Fi laptop can pick up the signal. Companies and residents can implement security features, but it takes some technical know-how. Lee says he avoids doing banking and other sensitive work while on the Wi-Fi network.

A Wi-Fi signal can also be less reliable. In some situations, a large truck or tree branch could block a signal, causing a user to temporarily lose an Internet connection.

Still, Cerritos officials say Wi-Fi is a good solution. Bringing broadband to town cost very little. Aiirmesh paid for and owns the network. In return, Cerritos allowed the company to have access to city facilities, such as traffic lights and buildings. Aiirmesh can use the electrical power at those sites.

Cerritos has agreed to buy 60 subscriptions to the service. They will be used largely by code enforcement officials and other city employees to file reports while working around town. Other city and county agencies, such as fire and police, may someday use the network, too, says Annie Hylton, a Cerritos manager who worked on the project.

That kind of deal could get more complicated as Wi-Fi matures. Aiirmesh needs to make money selling subscriptions to cover its costs. If Aiirmesh doesn’t profit in Cerritos, it could someday pull out, leaving Cerritos without Internet access. That already happened once with Ricochet, an early wireless Internet service that Cerritos tested in 2001.

Or, if the service takes off, competitors could want to put their own antennas on Cerritos traffic lights and buildings. The city says it will consider all proposals.

But these drawbacks aren’t stopping Cerritos, or other cities.

Rural Nevada, Mo., recently built a Wi-Fi network after being unable to woo traditional broadband carriers. The network provides service to the entire town, which is about eight square miles. "We spent $20,000 to do this ourselves," City Manager Craig Hubler says. "The cable companies were looking to spend $2 million (to install wired broadband)." The service costs residents about $30 a month and is also used by police and other local officials.

Twenty-four blocks in downtown Athens, Ga., have Wi-Fi, thanks to a partnership between the town and the University of Georgia. A group of students and professors spent about $85,000 to build the network, which is free. About 75% of users are students, and the rest are local professionals who come to downtown to work. Telecommunications professor Scott Shamp, who heads the program, says he expects community networks to take off. "I’m getting calls from all over the world," he says.