EETimes.com – Philadelphia to offer $20 monthly Wi-Fi access — So much for free universal service. So I cannot swing through town and casually go online. Still, this does become the world’s biggest hotspot.
Cable and DSL broadband providers in Philadelphia are breathing easier Thursday after the city announced its final Wi-Fi contract with EarthLink that seeks to keep retail prices under $20 a month for individual customers. Verizon Communications, which had resisted the citywide wireless broadband deployment, currently offers DSL at $14.95 a month, for instance.
And AOL dial-up just raised it’s price to $30.00 a month. Honestly, a lot of people just don’t trust the Phone and Cable companies, perhaps a city utility approach might work to expand the broadband user percentage. The sooner dial-up dies the sooner I will quit getting useles CDs in the mail.
It would be nice to pop into a city and not have to pay for Wi-Fi access.
How will this be controlled or regulated?
If I’m living in Phili, and I pay my $20 a month, can I use any number of my machines (say, a personal Laptop, Desktop, and buisness laptop, smartphones, game consoles) to connect to the wifi – or will it be $20 a month per machine?
Definitely sounds like a pricing structure designed to keep from shutting out the incumbents. Most similar projects Earthlink is bidding around the country is premised on offering the municipality a turnkey system for $9 per person per month.
That seems about right — with the offered low-income package being $9.95. That gives a 10% cushion for whatever. That also gives the city a base margin of 55%. Not too shabby. You can employ lots of wardheelers and their nephews with that much room.
Not that I’m being cynical you understand,
Jack you need to subscribe to earthlink.. Log on as if you would with a dial-up account only via your wi-fi.
user name and password.
@Richard – that makes sense. I’m in the UK where the idea of charging for Wifi hasn’t really taken flight.
Hmmm, yeah, I’m not interested in paying for it — that doesn’t seem to produce any new innovation. Google had it right — send it for free, and people will go online and spend more money online.
I bet the other providers in the area are just hatin earthlink now…
Well, its atleast moving in the right direction instead of shying away from technology like it may cause cancer.
More to the story, its a better deal including Low cost and free access
Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced details of a deal that will bring citywide Wi-Fi to the nation’s fifth most populous city.
The deal involves EarthLink, as well as Wireless Philadelphia, the entity created by the city to manage the system.
EarthLink will build, own and maintain the network for 10 years at a total cost of $22 million.
The system will consist of about 4,000 transceivers to be placed atop city light posts. Atlanta-based EarthLink will pre-pay $2 billion for the transceivers, including $250,000 due upon presumed City Council approval of Mayor Street’s deal.
EarthLink will pay Philly $74 for each light post, per year, as well as $300,000 for surveying costs associated with planning this deployment.
Basic rate will be $20 a month for businesses. Low-income customers will pay $9.95 a month. Additional rate structure elements have not yet been disclosed.
The city government gets 1,250 free Wi-Fi accounts. There will also be free access from 22 parks and public spaces, including Penn’s Landing, Independence Mall and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The first 15 square miles of this deployment are scheduled to be completed by this summer, with full completion due by fall, 2007.
This is great if the point is to have a city-wide shared network. But where are they getting the bandwidth for the outgoing internet connection? How much data throughput is Earthlink providing? At $20 a month this might not be a big deal. Though Philly should perhaps spend the money on their schools or cops instead.