Sandoval County plans to become the largest county (3,700 square miles) in the United States to have uninterrupted wireless Internet service.

The county comprises 3,700 square miles, three times the size of Rhode Island. But when the project is completed , people should be able to drive anywhere in the county and maintain an Internet connection with a laptop computer, said Jonathan Mann, chief executive officer of Olla Grande Inc., which is putting the system together.

Sandoval County has a leg up on the network because Rio Rancho, which completed a city-wide WiFi system last week, is located within the county. Most of the county is directly west of Santa Fe County and includes nine pueblos, including Cochiti.

But while the Rio Rancho system is based on WiFi technology — small radio transmitters mounted on street lights — the county project would combine WiFi, WiMAX and fiber-optic technology , Mann said. WiMAX technology, which is still in development, uses large towers to broadcast broadband service over big areas, a radius of up to 31 miles.

By Wendy Brown The New Mexican

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