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Wi-Fi Charlotte? Wireless Charlotte


atlrvr

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  • 3 months later...

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The update is that the proposal is dead. Earthlink Municipal Networks has laid off 50% of their workforce and the City Council Restructuring Govt Cmte has deferred this indefinately until market conditions improve for these type networks.

Other cities such as San Diego, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, and Milwaukee have also backed off their plans for a WiFi network with Earthlink.

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I don't know Charlotte's details, but I would think that Wi-Fi as a whole is not dead. Earthlink simply decided that it was not going to be profitable for them to provide the service to San Francisco (in addition to other financial problems). Hopefully other companies will step up and take their place as this is a hot topic. Cities are still wanting to provide this service and if large companies like Google continue to back the initiative, it will come about.

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  • 2 months later...

I saw today that they have a kiosk in SouthPark Mall. I glanced at the coverage on their computer and it seems to be pretty decent in the areas I looked, although I'm not sure whether there are 'holes' like cell phone service even though they claim service in an area.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The whole city, practically, has wireless, by ClearWire.

This was in the paper yesterday:

http://www.charlotte.com/business/columnis...ory/393332.html

http://www.clearwire.com/

However, I don't think it is standard WiFi, so it isn't just like you can sign up for the day, from what I understand.

Oh, and question: There was a ticket-checker guy on my train, and I overheard him talking with a bunch of people. After hearing something about laptops, I swear he said something like "We're supposed to be getting wireless soon". Anyone know anything about such a possibility? Maybe that's commonly known and I'm just not aware. Sorry if so.
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^I am pretty sure that Clearwire is reallymeant as a competitor for DSL and Cable but they don't have to string cables for it. They provide a sizeable external cable modem that you need to place for good reception. However I do believe they offer a laptop card that operates off one of the existing networks. That option is significantly more expensive.

Honestly I can't imagine anyone trying to use a laptop on one of these trains. They are too busy and the trip really isn't that long.

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^I am pretty sure that Clearwire is reallymeant as a competitor for DSL and Cable but they don't have to string cables for it. They provide a sizeable external cable modem that you need to place for good reception. However I do believe they offer a laptop card that operates off one of the existing networks. That option is significantly more expensive.

Honestly I can't imagine anyone trying to use a laptop on one of these trains. They are too busy and the trip really isn't that long.

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I was under the impression the ticket guy was talking about *free* WiFi on the trains, such as you would get at Starbucks. The Observer article doesn't really say one way or the other. There's a big difference between free WiFi and WiFi being available.

Anyway, I would whip out my laptop and use free WiFi for the 22 minute ride at 6:30am, no question.

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Clearwire isn't WiFi, it's WiMax and it does compete with DSL and Cable. WiMax uses radio spectrum much like cell phones, it's the precursor to 4G mobile broadband. Sprint is launching their WiMax network in Q1 2008, it has a theoretical speed of up to 100Mb. Where Clearwire launches it must have licensed access for radio spectrum that is why it isn't popping up everywhere and Sprint maintains a monopoly on the WiMax radio spectrum in the top 100 markets. The benefits of WiMax is mobility and distance, it isn't limited to a few hundred of a WiFi hotspot, internet connection is available wherever there is a cell tower. However if WiFi is available along the Blue Line, those with wireless device capable of recieving WiFi can switch onto it and it will not get billed for data usage using their phone network. Using WiFi on a PDA phone or smart phones or iPhone will be faster than using the internet provided by the service provider at the moment, iPhone uses 2G mobile technology (5X dial up speed at best).

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