Photo – Redzone’s “Fast for 5” program will provide 100% funded community wireless broadband systems, completely designed, constructed, and managed by Redzone Wireless, in exchange for the local community guaranteeing a minimum level of broadband services for a 5-year term. Continue reading
The LinkNYC network is being put together by a consortium called CityBridge together with city government. CityBridge’s main players include the transit advertising company Titan; the advertising and design agency, Control Group, networking giant Qualcomm; and hardware manufacturer Comark. Partners on the New York side include the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Continue reading
Aspen Communication’s wireless access point in Tyler, Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Google is known across the world as the company whose best, perhaps only, interest is to get as many people online as possible. It is perhaps due to this reason that it has launched its highly-revered high-speed ISP service in select US locations where demand seems to be extremely high.
In its latest initiative, Google is about to test new technology that will deliver ultra-fast wireless internet by bypassing the physical fiber cables that are needed for their high-end internet service. Google has filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission wherein it has asked the agency for permission to perform tests over various wireless spectrums across California. The filing has also requested the utilization of rarely-used millimeter-wave frequency that has the potential to transmit substantial amounts of data. Continue reading
Highlighting Broadband Access at Kent Island High School (Photo credit: MDGovpics)
Editorial: The USCM is asking the federal government to address a local problem unless they would like a federal takeover of education like Common Core has started. Education is a local issue and should be addressed at the local level just like broadband access. The mayors state that broadband access is just as important as a “chalkboard and textbooks” but the federal government doesn’t purchase those supplies either. School districts should work with their city and county governments that grant franchises to telephone and cable companies to provide inexpensive broadband access to schools. Instead of continuing the outdated concept of Community Access Channels, they should redirect that money to low-cost educational access. Another alternative would be to build their own municipal broadband infrastructure, and build in the cost of educational use into the least price of the network. There are several solutions that municipalities can implement without resorting to asking the FCC to add another tax on communication services.
A group of mayors is urging the Obama administration to bring high-speed Internet to more schools and libraries around the country.
Students at every U.S. school should have access to Internet speeds of 100 megabytes per second right now, and one gigabyte per second by 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The mayors also called for each classroom to have Wi-Fi connectivity.
Image by meghansvoyages via Flickr
Scientists at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Maynooth have devised a solution to what is a major challenge for cities worldwide − the provision of widespread, free, effective broadband.
For more than 10 years this has been a goal of cities in their drive to support the ’smart economy’, but it had remained elusive due to technological limitations.
By Jasmin Melvin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators paved the way on Thursday for new, faster wireless devices by opening unused television airwaves for mobile broadband use.
Device makers such as Dell Inc, Nokia and Motorola Inc stand to profit from the Federal Communications Commission’s unanimous vote to allow unlicensed wireless devices to operate on this idle spectrum.
