Dayton, Ohio: Free City-Wide WiFi

_Bunny writes "The City of Dayton, Ohio announced a plan to make all of downtown a WiFi hotspot - and as of last week, the network is live. This makes Dayton the first Ohio city to offer free WiFi access. Approximately one square mile of downtown is now live, including Fifth Third Field, the Oregon District, Webster Station and RiverScape. The WiFi project is a public/private partnership not funded by taxpayers, and comes at no charge to the end user." (According to the linked story at WHIO-TV, the city is actually paying about $5,000 per year, with advertisers picking up the rest of the tab.)

A little skimpy on the details.

[XxtraLarGe]

For $5000, it sounds like a real bargain. The question is, how do advertisers make money on this to pick up the rest of the cost? I'll bet its not too long before the advertisers bail, and the city ends up picking up the tab. Any bets?

1 mile radius == entire city

[0kComputer]

I don't know if you've ever been to dayton (i went to UD), but I'm not sure I'd use the word "city" to describe it. I went to school there, and if I remember the Oregon district was tough to find because if you blinked at the wrong time you may miss it. Don't get me wrong, this is definately cool, but just keep in mind that Dayton isn't exactly a thriving metropolis.

Mirrored links

[winkydink]

_Bunny [networkmirror.com] writes "The City of Dayton, Ohio [networkmirror.com] announced a plan to make all of downtown a WiFi hotspot [networkmirror.com] - and as of last week, the network is live [networkmirror.com]. This makes Dayton the first Ohio city to offer free WiFi access. Approximately one square mile of downtown is now live, including Firth Third Field [networkmirror.com], the Oregon District [networkmirror.com], Webster Station [networkmirror.com] and RiverScape [networkmirror.com]. The WiFi project is a public/private partnership not funded by taxpayers, and comes at no charge to the end user." (According to the linked story at WHIO-TV, the city is actually paying about $5,000 per year, with advertisers picking up the rest of the tab.)

Corpus Christi TX just did this

[alispguru]

See "a herf="http://www.downtowncorpuschristi.com/wiki/DM D/WiFiCity">here. It's free for now and covers the whole downtown area.

Re:City Wide?

[Nos.]

Its interesting that they went with WiFi - and thus end up with a pretty limited area. Of course WiMax equipment is quite ready for the masses, though it is being rolled out in some areas.

Re:History in the making

[Anonymous Coward]

or just really enjoy using snow chains

Ironically, even though it's snowed in fucking June here before, they made snow chains illegal!

Similar Idea

[ziploclogic]

I'm working with local business in Downtown Parkersburg, WV to do the same thing. However, a few local business are already doing this for-fee. Anyone have any input regarding our stepping on the toes of these companies?

http://www.ezwv.com/ [ezwv.com]
http://www.wirefire.com/ [wirefire.com]
http://www.sequelle.net/ [sequelle.net]

I've never done anything like this so I'm curious if anyone has an opinion what precautions I should take to protect myself. We're trying to roll this out as quickly as possible as a movie begins filming in out humble town this month. We think we'll be able to draw a lot of attention to "ground-zero" for our network which just happens to be our Cultural Arts Center and the location for a film festival going on at the end of the month.

TIA

Re:History in the making

[LWATCDR]

Well there is the Air Force Museum and Wright Patterson AFB where they keep the UFO that crashed in New Mexico.
Actually I have had to go to Ohio a few times and it was not that bad.

No problems with Hotspots

[pavon]

The telcoms have no problems with WiFi hotspots because the city pays for the connection that is feeding the WAP. As far as they are concerned, the city is just another customer. Where they have a problem is when the city tries to compete with them by providing the broadband connections themselves.

Dayton and the Universe

[thomasa]

Edgar Cayce once said that Dayton, Ohio was the center of the universe. Maybe it was at one time. It was the home of 5 fortune 500 companies, it was the home of the (generally accepted) inventors of the first powered flight machine called the aeroplane. It was important to the computer industry - NCR is still here and U.S. Navy Bombe used in code breaking was built here. But the automobile which was very connected to Dayton Ohio through General Motors and its divisions helped depopulate the city. The surrounding county is doing fairly well however. Montgomery county which contains Dayton, Ohio has a population of 550,000. Dayton, Ohio has a population of 166,000. Dayton proper used to have a population over 200,000.

Re:City Wide?

[GreyPoopon]

In these tight economic times, why would a city consider it a wise move to spend tax payer monies on project like this just escapes me.

1. High-speed internet for poorer people who can barely even afford a PC. It's a pretty cheap way to offer self-improvement benefits and otherwise "look good" among some of the poorer voters.
2. Bringing "customers" into the WiFi hot zone to patronize the local business just because they have connectivity there.

Is it really THAT expensive to install and operate a city-wide wireless network? The $5000 per year that Dayton is paying is pure PEANUTS compared to some of the other things that money gets wasted on. They've probably wasted more than that on "entertainment" expenses run up by a single employee in the last two months.

Not True!

[moultano]

Cincinnati's got Graeter's, which is the best icecream in the world flat out.

Cincinnati's also got a excellent art museum, one of the best zoos in the country, great public libraries, and that wonderful heartwarming Skyline Chili.

Dayton on the other hand . . . hmm.

You don't wanna go Downtown

[CaseyABretti]

Downtown Dayton is having a huge problem with crime. In Mid-February, there was a huge (50+ people) fight with people injured and thrown in jail. Right in the center of Downtown is a bus hub, where there is a huge gathering of somewhat questionable folk.. that's how the fight got started. Drug deals go on down there frequently. We're talking a four or five block range... it's not a huge area, yet it's saturated with problems. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to leave my suburbian apartment and take my $2k laptop downtown and run the risk of getting mugged, raped, whatever. I've lived in/around Dayton all my life, and grew up in one of the rougher neighborhoods (Trotwood)... When I say it's bad down there... it's bad.

Re:City Wide?

[craters]

Plans are for a 1 mile radius 'test' area for a few months, then if that goes well, expanded to cover a 55 mile radius. I read it in the local paper, couldn't find an online link to article though. I'll be interested as well how they stand up to local broadband providers. Verizon Wireless has already been promoting their new offering in this region.

Re:City Wide?

[N3Bruce]

Nah, what you really want is a dish. At 2.4 Ghz, a surplus Directv or similar dish with a patch antenna at the feed would be the real deal. Check out the K5OE Website [aol.com] for some ideas.