Pro Municipal Broadband Bill Introduced in U.S. Senate
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) on Thursday June 23rd introduced significant legislation to the floor of the U.S. Senate that seeks to protect the rights of individual municipalities in delivering broadband services. S. 1294, the Community Broadband Act of 2005, removes state restrictions on local government pursuit of broadband and other telecommunications services, and the legislation makes clear that local involvement in expanding broadband use and access is vital to all Americans. Read more about the bill here, and contact your Senator to voice your support.
Washington Post Opines on the Benefits of Municipal Wireless Networks
On June 15 the Editorial Board of the Washington Post outlined the wireless broadband deployment in Alexandria, Virginia. In the OpEd piece, the Post illustrates the benefits of municipally owned networks, and supports the enhanced services these communities can deliver as a result of ubiquitous wireless broadband deployment. Read the full text of the OpEd here.
“Phone Giants Are Lobbying Hard To Block Towns’ Wireless Plans”
TOn the front page of the June 23rd issue of the Wall Street Journal, Jesse Drucker and Li Yuan write an in depth story about the broadband struggles of Granbury, TX. They write “after years of waiting for a local phone company to roll out high-speed Internet access…municipal information technology director Tony Tull took matters into his own hands.” In order to solve their lack-of-broadband dilemma, Mr. Tull, working with Granbury-based Frontier Broadband, deployed a Tropos MetroMesh infrastructure across town, and most of the 6,400 residents of this growing lakeside community now have access to low-cost broadband services. Read the full text of the article here.
“Backwater Broadband”
Forbes Magazine published a feature about the MetroMesh network deployed in Chaska, MN, in their July 5th edition. The article states “supercheap and superfast, mesh networks fuel the next wireless revolution…” and goes on to state “several hundred small towns and cities are launching mesh networks…”. Read the full article here.
“Wi-Fi Takes Hold as Cities look to the Sky for Broadband Revolution”
In the June 15th edition of the Financial Times, Paul Taylor writes “as the economics of wireless become ever more compelling, hundreds of communities across the globe are deploying large urban ‘mesh’ networks.” The full text of the article can be accessed here.
“Freedom to Roam Makes New Pioneers of Minnesotans”
Mr. Taylor, also in the June 15th edition of the Financial Times, writes an in-depth case study about the Chaska, MN, MetroMesh deployment. Read the full article here and learn how the installation of a Wi-Fi MetroMesh network brought low-cost broadband to the citizens of Chaska.
Intel Expands its Wi-Fi Chip Technology
The chip giant, and wireless technology pioneer, announced development of an advanced chip that can handle multiple radios in a single device. The chip technology prototype will support Wi-Fi standards ranging from the current 802.11a to standards requirements expected for 802.11n. This type of commitment from industry titans like Intel will continue to increase the performance and capacity of open-standards networks while further driving down costs. This is one of the many reasons that Tropos MetroMesh networks have always been based on open-standards radio technology.
Tropos MetroMesh Certification Update!
MetroMesh products are available for deployment in a large and growing list of countries around the world. The latest certifications received include Taiwan, Japan, China and the European Union. More to come!
Two New Case Studies from Tropos Networks
To learn more about the creative uses of Wi-Fi, and the deployment of Tropos MetroMesh networks across a number of environments, take a look at our published case studies. New to the list are papers detailing the deployments in New Orleans, where the Tropos MetroMesh system is helping the police force save lives, and Corpus Christi, where multiple city agencies have completely mobile access to mission critical applications.
