News

Another community WiFi network - near Chicago

The difference between this and several "local authority" inspired area networking projects, is simple enough: this is a co-operative venture by a consortium of local businesses in the Mount Pleasant area in central Michigan.

The consortium has called itself Last Mile Technology - and the local business leaders consulted Proxim for ideas on a district wide wireless infrastructure.

According to a local paper, the project is providing indoor and outdoor wireless to apartment blocks.

This model has been seen already in the UK, where Wialess.com started up from the discovery by a building firm that it was far cheaper to provide an Internet-ready home with wireless, than by embedding CAT 5 cabling in all the walls.

"Last Mile is made up of local businessmen who came up with idea of wireless Internet and did a review of the different products available to do this kind of project, and this is where Proxim Corporation came in," Proxim Senior Public Relations Manager Amy Martin told Central Michigan's paper.

The district is not, perhaps, a typical suburb; it's a feed area for Carnegie-Mellon University. Nonetheless, it looks to set an example which others will copy rapidly.

Nelson Franke, Last Mile Technologies sales and marketing director, said CMU was chosen because of the area as well as the demand for a high speed connection. He also said the university and apartment complexes made it easy to deploy the city-wide network.

Internet connection will cost $25 a month, the paper reports.