Cities find ways to provide downtown wireless data networks for a variety of reasons: to facilitate communications for public safety services, read meters from a central location or monitor streets through video surveillance.
As of this month, there are 133 Internet service providers that are doing business in the state, according to Amanda Murphy, spokeswoman for Connect Ohio.
“Increasing high-speed Internet access and adoption strengthens economic development, increases jobs and educational opportunities,” she said. “(It) can improve daily lives through saving time and money (and providing) immediate access to health care resources.”
Internet access has increased dramatically in recent years, according to Connect Ohio research, but a little more than 77,000 households in the state do not have access. Among those without access are low-income families, as one of the top reasons why people don’t get on the Internet is because of cost, according to a Connect Ohio survey.
A unique wireless network model is working in the central Ohio cities of Gahanna and Dublin. Both have agreements with the small wireless Internet provider — High Speed Air, to monitor city water services and provide video surveillance for police and at special events. Residents and businesses there can sign up for one of three affordable wireless data plans and use the same system for day-to-day web activities. Costs of the plans are $10, $15 and $20.
Tom Kneeland, Gahanna information technologies director, said the city is an anchor tenant and committed to using a certain amount of the network.
High Speed Air then takes the balance of what’s left on the network and sells it to residents and local businesses, he said.
“It’s a simple relationship,” Kneeland said. “The entire city is covered, but there are places where there are dead spots.”
Chris Harris, a Kettering native and owner of High Speed Air, said starting a municipal wireless Internet network is a lot like building a new mall, in which you identify two or three anchor tenants and build from there.
Certain traits and aspects of a city determines the costs and viability of going wireless.
Harris said ideal cities have fiber optics infrastructure in place, a population density of about 1,000 people per square mile, few hills and trees and lots of above ground streetlights or utility poles to install wireless access points. Harris said the average cost to build it is about $150,000 per square mile.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that not every community makes sense for WiFi,” Harris said.
Harris said he has talked with many city leaders across the state about his business model. He has created a ranking system for whether a city would be a good wireless candidate.
“Citizens and local businesses are looking for someone other than a big carrier to do business with because of the economic climate,” Harris said. “Right now, it depends on whether a city decides to form partnerships and differentiate themselves from other communities.”
In some cases, Internet access for the public is a bonus.
In Hollywood, Fla., a wireless network was installed downtown to enable motorists to use credit cards at parking meters.
In Houston, Texas, officials recently announced receiving Homeland Security grant money to pay for a wireless mesh network, connecting 134 traffic cameras and enabling first responders to monitor the downtown area from one, central location.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding covered the costs for the project — deployment, installation, providing long term benefits for the citizens of Houston and without impact to city budgets.
Some Ohio cities are providing wireless Internet access to the public, including one successful model in two cities where downtown residents can pay as little as $10 for Internet service.
The city of Akron has three square miles of free wireless Internet coverage in the downtown area and typically there are hundreds of people using the network on a daily basis, according to Connect Akron. There are dozens of access points installed around the city and during perfect conditions the network offers connection speeds roughly 18 times what is possible with a 56K dial-up modem.
It is paid in part through sponsorships, including Goodyear, four grant foundations and the University of Akron.
“It’s been a big trend recently in parts of the country. I think lot of major cities have pushed to do this,” said Chris Bernard, MU director of network engineering and telecommunications.
Students at Miami University’s main campus in Oxford and branch campuses in Middletown and Hamilton are all connected via a broadband network through Butler County’s fiber optics ring.
Costs to operate the network are built into the tuition or residency fees. About 60 percent of the traffic on Miami’s wireless network is used for streaming video, like YouTube.com or Netflix, and the university is constantly increasing the wireless bandwidth capacity to accommodate the demand, Bernard said.
“No matter how much we put out there, the students will use it up,” Bernard said.
The university pays $300,000 a year as part of a long-term lease to use a portion of the 96 strands in Butler County’s fiber optics ring, most of the budgeted $420,000 for Internet related charges this year, Bernard said.
“Communication is very powerful,” he said. “It provides a competitive edge. Places that have WiFi have done it to encourage greater public access to shopping, tourism, social networks ... What do we not do electronically these days? For many of us, it’s hard to imagine how to conduct life without it.”
David Prytherch, acting chair and associate professor of geography at Miami University. Prytherch specializes in urbanization and planning issues. He said city leaders are looking for ways to retain recent college graduates and attract young professionals and “the creative class of people.”
“Cities see it as a tool for urban revitalization and economic development. This goes along with other efforts to build artist spaces, cultural venues and nightlife,” he said. “We lose twenty-somethings to other places, very often vibrant urban centers. It’s a form of brain drain for the region.”
Increasing access to the Internet may soon become a necessity for democratic societies.
If you assume that a democratic society functions because the people are informed, then people who don’t have access to the Internet are handicapped, Prytherch said.
“The idea of public WiFi – it’s one small way of making information more democratic. It’s one way to make sure we leave as few people disconnected as we can,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.
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