Officials from Anaheim, California and EarthLink “cut the cord” on their $5.5 million wireless network, yesterday, reports the OC Register.
Holding the cable’s dangling ends were Garry Betty, president and CEO of EarthLink, which will run the $5 million network, and Ronald Sege, president and CEO of Tropos Networks, which provided WiFi mesh gear mounted on light posts around the city, reports C/Net.
It’s EarthLink’s first large-scale “city cloud”.
While only 10 square miles of the 49 square mile wireless network is currently operational, Anaheim’s residents and 20 million yearly visitors (attracted mainly by Disneyland), will soon benefit — for a small fee. Residential 1 Mbps service costs $21.95 per month. Occasional use customers can get temporary access in a variety of packages ranging from $3.95 for a one-hour pass to $15.95 for a three-day pass. No free service will be provided.
The network is entirely subscription-funded. EarthLink expects 15,000 to 20,000 of the 340,000 residents to sign up for what it calls an “Open Access Model.” It will also serve city departments and businesses.
Earthlink, and other municipal wireless providers are beginning to roll out “city clouds” nationwide. Earthlink has contracts to “unwire” San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans and many other cities.
“Even if EarthLink is hugely successful with citywide Wi-Fi, we’ll only start to see meaningful results in 2009,” said Jim Friedland, a senior Internet equities analyst at Cowen and Co. “EarthLink is essentially running a start-up within a public company, and it’s funding this new business with revenue from its traditional dial-up business, which is rapidly shrinking. It’s risky.”
Rosie Navarrete (right), who owns a candy and toy store near City Hall, signed up to be one of EarthLink’s first customers, reports the OC Register. Two months ago, she switched from DSL to wireless, which she uses to reply to more than 60 e-mails a day, pay her bills online and monitor her eight security cameras from the comfort of her home, which lies in the coverage area.
“I was very surprised by how well it works,” Navarrete, 24, said. “I could go anywhere (within the test site) and go wireless. You can’t beat that.”
Currently, the test site in central Anaheim serves 42 customers.
Audra Hoynacki, the general manager for Earthlink Wi-Fi in Anaheim, says there will be about 1,500 Tropos nodes hanging on poles in town. They connect wirelessly to Canopy backhaul links on rooftops in town. The network should be completed by the end of the year.
The network is operated and optimized using Tropos Control and Tropos Insight, a suite of end-to-end configuration, monitoring and maintenance tools. EarthLink also uses Motorola’s MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including the Canopy high-speed backhaul that links the Tropos nodes to the internet.
A major update to the 1996 telecommunications bill is now heading to the full Senate for a vote. While it lacks extensive Net neutrality regulations, the new bill has one provision that reflects the new thinking - it will forbid state legislatures from banning “city clouds” like Anaheim’s.
When Philadelphia announced their plan to build a city-wide wireless network, Verizon successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania legislature to effectively stop other communities in the state from offering similar services. Without Net Neutrality provisions, however, the bill’s future is uncertain and a final vote could be delayed for months or even until next year, reports C/Net, which also has a great collection of municipal wifi articles.
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