Free Wireless — In My City?

The Inquirer’s Patrick Kerkstra reported last night that a group of local investors has rescued Wireless Philadelphia like the abandoned kitten that it is.

The group includes Derek Pew and Mark Rupp, who are apparently both local and businessmen. “Little if any” taxpayer money was used in the deal; the two plan to offer free, advertising-supported wireless Internet in the city. Hey, how long ’til we can start taking bets on the advertising market collapsing? Oh, I guess I just started.

Mayor Nutter will talk about Wireless Philadelphia today at noon.

Wi-Fi Lives [Heard in the Hall]

[Photo by eva101; licensed with Creative Commons]

Wireless Philly Costs You Almost $2

Crack Metro reporter Josh Cornfeld continues on the Wireless Philadelphia beat today, which is way more interesting than whatever beat I used to poke fun at him for being on. (I’ve done too many posts — this is post No. 7,338 — to remember what that was.)

He has quite the scoop: Apparently, this whole free wi-fi thing wasn’t all that free for the city. (Shocking.) Ha ha, whoops, it actually has cost the city $2.6 million so far, including lots and lots of consultant fees so Dianah Neff could answer questions on Philly Future. Or something like that. Two-point-six mil would equal somewhere close to $2 a person in this city. (I don’t understand finances.)

Aside from the loan, the city has also paid technology consulting company Strategic Staffing Solutions $571,279 since 2004 and $463,000 to Civitium. Civitium has since hired Dianah Neff, who proposed the network as Street’s Chief Information Officer.

While Earthlink apparently wants to pull out, Wireless Philadelphia is going to go kicking and screaming to the grave, it seems, or possibly rise again like the Phoenix.

Reason #34 To Love Philadelphia: Free Internet

From Earthlink’s press release sent out yesterday:

Ring the Liberty Bell! EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK) is in the spirit of giving! Today, the ISP is kicking off a service that will give Philadelphia residents, workers and visitors an opportunity to try on its EarthLink Wi-FiSM product free-of-charge through January 21, 2007.

Available to consumers who live, work or visit EarthLink’s 15-square-mile proof-of-concept (POC) area, which extends east of Broad Street and north of the Vine Street Expressway, EarthLink Wi-Fi offers down-and-upload speeds up to 1Mbps.

Yes, ring the Liberty Bell! That makes a lot of sense!

But, hey: Free Intetnet in Center City! Let the massive porn downloading begin. Full release after the jump.

More »

With Liberty And Porn For All

Philadelphia’s Wi-Fi network will be the Internet the way it’s supposed to be: Full of pornography.

Wireless Philadelphia has decided that it will not block access to pornographic sites. Hallelujah!

KYW 1060 reports that when Culver City, Calf., found out most people were using the free Wi-Fi network to visit porn or piracy sites — but of course! — it installed filters. But Philly is going at this Internet thing au natural:

“We’re trying to create the opportunities for people here, without limiting anyone’s ability to take full advantage of the Internet. Because once you start putting those things (filters) in, you could potentially be limiting people’s access to important opportunities as well.”

Yep. The important goal of having naked Philly chicks exposing themselves on webcam’s over the city’s Wi-Fi. If the city can develop a free, citywide credit card processing system, this city’s economy will be rejuvenated.

Phila.’s WiFi Network Won’t Block Porn Sites [KYW 1060]

Leftovers: Tough Break

• Jevon Kearse, injured near the end of the Eagles’ loss to the Giants yesterday, is out for the year with a knee injury. Gee, yesterday’s game just keeps getting better and better. Tomorrow, the team’s going to announce that anthrax was accidentally released at the game and everyone needs to get tested. [Inquirer]

• Wireless Philadelphia has a pricetag! $21.95 a month. (The “Digital Inclusion” — read: poor — rate is $9.95.) The service hasn’t even started yet, and the rates have already gone up from the $20/month promoted when the city signed the deal. Capitalism sure is a hideous bitch goddess. [Civil Defense]

• In New Jersey, the state will no longer pick up deer carcasses, which means driving in Jersey just got about a million times more awesome. [AP/Camden Courier Post]

• Just after Chris Ferguson, the astronaut reared in Northeast Philly, leaves the space station, there’s a toxic spill. Coincidence? Yeah, most certainly. [Reuters/CNN.com]

• Hey, Bob Casey can talk!

Small California Town Outdoes Philadelphia

Yes, it’s true: A small town in California with a population of 72,000 has totally just kicked Philadelphia square in the family jewels. Okay, okay, the town happens to be Mountain View, California, home of Google, but that doesn’t change the fact that Google is offering the entire town free Internet.

Google won’t be giving it to them through a series of tubes, oh no — it’s free Wi-Fi Internet for the whole city. Philadelphia, whose Wi-Fi system is slated for completion in 2098, will be charging somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 bucks a month for it. And, hell, even San Francisco — whose Wi-Fi is going to be done by Earthlink, the same company doing Philly’s — is going to have a free (but slower) Wi-Fi run by Google, with a top speed service at $20 a month.

Yep. Philly will be conquering that problem of the digital divide any day now.

Google: Free Wi-Fi for our hometown [AP/CNN.com]

Wireless Philadelphia Just Like Everything Else

Hmm, what’s that?

It took six hearings, but Philadelphia City Council has given a preliminary okay to the Mayor’s plan to blanket the city in wireless Internet.

Woo-hoo! Finally! Man, what took you guys so long?

Wireless Philadelphia officials had hoped that approval by the council committee would have come weeks ago, but committee chair Brian O’Neill says it was important and complicated, so six hearings were needed:

Six hearings? I mean, whatever you say, Brian, but it seemed like a pretty simple open-and-shut one to me. But, oh! It was important and complicated! Erhm. Hey, wait a minute…

“There were stacks of papers I think if you put on top of each they’d be taller than me, and I’m 6-4, so it was a lot of work, but a lot of good work, I think.”

Wait for it… wait for it…

Committee approval of the ambitious WiFi plan came only after the Mayor made some key concessions on the plan. Now, City Council will be able to appoint three members to the Wireless Philadelphia Board.

Heeeeey! There we go! That’s the City Council I know and hate!

Phila. City Council Okays Wireless Internet Plan [KYW 1060]

Wireless Internet Available Only To Short People

An article in Metro yesterday detailed the one tiny little problem with the city’s wireless internet program: It won’t go above three stories.

This makes sense, of course. Sometimes I have problems getting wifi in my room, and my laptop is only about 10 feet away from my router. (And I have a good router, a Linksys, not some CompUSA brand.) And so it’d make sense that with the wireless stations located on lightposts, there wouldn’t be a way to get wireless if you weren’t close enough to a lightpost. Which, in a high rise, you’re not. (Earthlink says that’s going to be “Phase 2″ of the program, which is okay — and it’d be better to finally get this thing off the ground, if City Council ever actually votes to sign the contract.)

Obviously, the patricians in Center City highrise condos and office buildings aren’t hurting for the Internet. (Although the program is designed for all, let’s just say that cheap Internet is going to — in theory — help the poorer people in the city. Right?) But there are lower-income high-rises as well. But, of course, if you do live above the third floor, you can buy a special wifi card from Earthlink in order to get service.

City Council didn’t sign a contract yesterday, which means that, as time passes, the original awesome, amazing idea for the city covered in free wireless Internet has slowly become something that, like the extension of Woodhaven Road, feels like it’s just not going to happen. Or, if and when it does, it’ll be a lame-o, expensive program that won’t work well, won’t be available to many people and just will be another “oh well” thing in this city.

Hopefully, I’ll be wrong. But, well, it is Philadelphia.

Wi-Fi’s glass ceiling [Metro]
Photo by Manamanah

John Street has really, finally, officially joined the ranks of the great Philadelphia mayors

From an AP photo by Joseph Kaczmarek in today’s Metro, John Street speaks at yesterday’s Wireless Philadelphia press conference:

John Street is ready to download… YOUR SOUL.

‘Online, not in line’ [Metro]

Blogicized: Men of the Internet

• Guess what, single gal? Guys you meet on Craigslist might be 32 and living with their parents in New Jersey! Okay, I guess you might’ve already known that. [Apartment 2024]

• Alas. The Padres signed Mike Piazza to a one-year, $2 million deal to be their catcher. Although the Phillies missed out him, Padres fans are ecstatic about the possibility for the sexiest locker room ever. [Gaslamp Ball via Deadspin]

• An added bonus to Philadelphians getting oil from Hugo Chavez: It possibly pisses off Pat Robertson. [Badminton Stamps]

• The city has signed the Wireless Philadelphia contract, and Northeast Philly is going to be the guinea pig to make sure the system will work. The whole city is supposed to be done by 2007. So get ready to use your wireless laptop on the city’s system in about 2010. [Philly Future]