Attack of the Giant Wi-Fi

[Chris Blount]

What's bigger than Rhode Island, less expensive than most McMansions and up to 30 times faster than dial-up?

It's what may be the world's biggest Wi-Fi network, a 1,500-square mile hot zone covering the rolling hills, wheat fields and small towns of rural Washington state. Built by Columbia Energy, a subsidiary of the Columbia Rural Electric Association, and currently serving about 100 customers, the giant Wi-Fi is being touted as rural America's answer to the broadband connectivity of big cities.

According to the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, the network cost just $600,000 to construct (that's $400 per square mile). It relies on antennas and smaller pico cell transmitters from Vivato Inc., a San Francisco-based company, and wireless Internet service from Spokane-based OneEighty Networks.

The Post-Intelligencer reports that customers can pay as little as $39.95 a month for 256 kilobits per second, up to $295.95 a month for 1.5 megabits per second. With 200 customers expected by year's end, that may not provide enough to buy a warehouse of modems from cable biggie Comcast, but for the farmers, real estate agents, stores and homeowners of central Washington, it's a pretty hot deal.

http://www.skyreport.com (Used with permission)

[invaliduser88]

Too expensive. Why the hell do the ISP's insist on trying to gouge the consumers for fast Internet access?

[SimpleSimon]

invaliduser88: You're not understanding it. We're talking about wireless access over something like a 30 by 50 mile area, not simple junk city cable or DSL.

It's says it costs "just" $600K, but divide that out by the customer, and that's a lot.

I live in a similar area and run my own neighborhood WISP. The commercial WiFi providers here have the same kind of pricing structure. I know what upstream bandwidth costs and I think they're doing well.

[RichW]

By April of next year, we hope to have a Wi-Max grid covering the whole Portland metro area. It will be a by-product of our public safety backup system. It will give each user 3 Mbps and VOIP capability. Parts of teh system will be freely available. In case of an emergency, the system will be commandeered by public safety organizations(police, fire, hospitals) but will be available to the public otherwise.

[SimpleSimon]

That sounds like a pretty cool setup. I assume you've heard of Seattle Wireless? They've done some big-time stuff up there on a public-service co-op public-access basis. I learned a LOT from them!

[Jason Nipp]

That sounds like a pretty cool setup. I assume you've heard of Seattle Wireless? They've done some big-time stuff up there on a public-service co-op public-access basis. I learned a LOT from them!


I use a Wireless ISP. This is my ISP T6 (http://www.t6wireless.com). The pricing and speeds are structured...3mbps starts at $50/month...and they offer 6.9mb and full T1 services...at a much higher price of course. VOIP capable but not offering it for residential yet.

Jason