The City of Alexandria launched Wireless Alexandria earlier this month. It’s the region s first free, outdoor, wireless Internet zone.
The goals of the one-year pilot project are to provide a convenient public service to users, stimulate economic development and tourism by drawing people to Alexandria, promote the image of Alexandria as a high-tech community, and test the feasibility of using wireless devices for municipal operations.
Alexandria’s e-government manager Craig T. Fifer says residents shouldn’t give up their current wireless carrier service for several reasons:
- Because Wireless Alexandria is free, “We won’t be answering your service calls at 3 a.m.”
- The city is not putting any encryption on the network, so it’s not secure enough for financial transactions
- The network will have only outdoor access points, and the chances of its working well indoors are slim
- If the network attracts much inappropriate use, the city might have to set a time limit on access, perhaps two hours per day.
The initial cost of the equipment was less than $14,000, with an ongoing monthly cost of $650 for Internet bandwidth. The project was funded by Alexandria s Information Technology Plan, which is part of the City s capital improvement program.
Free access, no FIPS 140-2 and an open garden. Would John Le Carre approve?
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