Baltimore Inner Harbor To Go Wireless

An anonymous reader writes "The City of Baltimore has made free wireless internet available in the Inner Harbor in hopes of bringing in more tourists and business conventions. According to this article on Sunspot Internet service will be available free of charge to portable computers from the Baltimore Science Center to the World Trade Center along the touristy waterfront. Need to check your e-mail when sailing the Chesapeake Bay? Just dock at the Rusty Scupper and whip out your laptop."

St. Louis has had this for a bit...

[KodaK]

I can't say it's helped draw in business yet, but it's here [usatoday.com].

I've got it in my town...

[NineNine]

I've got free wireless broadband in my town, too. I had to get an antenna to get it to my building, but it works great, and it helps my business a lot by saving $100+/month on a (slower) DSL connection.

Sweet for Otakon!

[2Flower]

Every year Otakon holds one of the biggest east coast anime conventions at the Baltimore Convention Center, right on the Inner Harbor. If the WiFi reaches that far, I might be able to wank my inner geek by not only attending a japanese animation convention while wearing a schoolgirl costume with mechanical power-up accessories, but actually posting live cosplay photos back to my website at the same time.

Life is good. Or sad. Or good!

What inner harbour?

[stratjakt]

Isabel blew much of into the bay.

Seriously, though, B-mo needs to do more than just provide free wireless. Cleaning up the panhandlers, crackheads, pot peddlers and other assorted dirtbags would go along way to revitalizing the district's nightlife.

It's a cool place to go, it's a shame the city's so dirty and crime ridden. Working in the public safety field, and living in the area, I've spoken with lots of b-mo cops, and morale there is so low. They're just so overwhelmed with typical inner city crime that they've become completely apathetic.

Last year when that crack dealer burned down some ladies home (because she supposedly called the cops on him), and killed her and her 5 children, it should have sent a wake-up call, but the b-mo police just hit the snooze button.

Oh well, wireless is pretty cool, but it's not an area that you'd want to sit in the open with your two thousand dollar laptop.

Coming soon to a convention center near you

[TopShelf]

This will be a great benefit for people visiting Baltimore for conventions. The convention center (as I recall) is just a short walk from the inner harbor, so while taking a break from seminars and trade floor groupies, you can plug in without having to tromp back to your hotel...

The Right Attitude

[Chibi Merrow]

Your point MIGHT be valid if we weren't talking about the Government competing with a private business. That's not supposed to happen. A business can only use funds that have been voluntarily given to them by customers/investors to stay in business while the Government can force you to hand over tax revenues to fund whatever they want.

If the company who donated the equipment to the city was running a free hotspot as an advertisement for themselves that'd be one thing, but by getting the city government involved in the project they've probably set themselves up for a lawsuit. The Government is supposed to help along private business, not compete with it. A Government is always unfair competition... Because in the end they can always make you being in business illegal.

Re:The wrong attitude

[vees]

I called them to get service to my house two months ago and they never returned any of my calls. I think that's more likely to hurt their business than a wireless harbor.

Navigation / Tourist Tool

[merger]

I've thought about this for a while. By putting a transmitter out near the channel buoy and a notifier that users should try connecting at that point they can point people to navigational charts, highlight hazards that may not be on charts, show weather and tides, point them to the appropriate guest slip and handle payment for that slip. Ultimately, the idea is to create a portal specific to the needs of the maritime community.

The big issues then arise is that do you really want people running the boat and operating a laptop at the same time. This could be combatted somewhat by building text-to-speech tools on the web site so it says everything I mentoned.

Re:St. Louis has had this for a bit...

[pavon]

Yeah, I don't see how something like this would bring in tourists. "Travel hundreds of miles to use the same internet you can at home." Wireless acces might make things more convient for the tourists once they got here, but I doubt anyone would choose to come because of it.

Business conventions, however, make a lot of sense. This could also be a good idea for cities working on revitalizing parts of the town. It would both increase the value of the land to businesses, as well as making it a more plesent place for people to hang out. I for one would much rather work on a laptop at a park than in my danky apartment.