Nightstick
join:2000-09-21
Philadelphia, PA
1 edit | reply to howrman
Re: 4 years late, and nothing to show for it!
said by howrman  :said by wifi4milez : Actually, there's a lot to show for it. The network is up and running and it's about 70% complete. Plus, it hasn't cost the City a penny. All in all, even if Earthlink bails, it was a very good deal. That is complete fiction.
The network was slated to cover the entire city.
Right now it barely reaches out of Center City, if you can even find it working there.
Like most other technology projects that the city runs, Philadelphia Municipal Wifi is a complete disaster.
I saw this coming YEARS ago, as did anyone else who knows how Philadelphia's city government operates.
That said, I don't think ANYONE ANYWHERE has come up with a viable business model for municipal wifi. The fact that a city CAN do wifi, doesn't mean it SHOULD. While cities spin their wheels trying to work out kinks SLOWLY, like everything else in government, their private sector competition advances in leaps and bounds, giving few but the ultra-poor ANY reason to consider the second-rate service offered by municipalities.
If Philadelphia's city government REALLY wants to put more-affordable broadband into more of its citizen's hands, it should stop running interference for Comcast and allow Verizon FIOS within city limits.
But I won't be holding my breath waiting for this, anymore than I was holding my breath waiting for city wifi ANYWHERE NEAR my neighborhood in NE Philly.
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| said by Nightstick :The network was slated to cover the entire city. Right now it barely reaches out of Center City, if you can even find it working there. So this map is a complete lie? ahhahaah »www.wirelessphiladelphia.org/cov···area.cfm |
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Nightstick
join:2000-09-21
Philadelphia, PA
| said by patcat88 :said by Nightstick :The network was slated to cover the entire city. Right now it barely reaches out of Center City, if you can even find it working there. So this map is a complete lie? ahhahaah » www.wirelessphiladelphia.org/cov···area.cfm Absolutely!
A WiFi router stapled to a telephone pole is not "coverage."
Sustainable connectivity=coverage. Good luck finding THAT anywhere outside the initial pilot areas. |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Are you expecting full building penetration or something? Using a directional antenna at a window and a inside dwelling repeater I would say should be standard procedure. Full building penetration would mean every lightpole or every other lightpole must have an AP. I am going to assume thats what your talking about. Or is there extreme wifi interference (# of APs) that makes its impossible to use even with LOS to the AP? If you can't get a connection with LOS to the AP on the pole, your story is too fishy.
IEEE needs to be put in the stocks for not having transmit power control in WiFi (using minimum amount of power needed to reach client), because they have polluted 2.4ghz so badly in urban/suburban areas. |
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