Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank
Free Wi-Fi is not a very good idea IMHO. Wi-Fi is not designed to cover all areas, it is a "campus" area network. Wait for WiMAX (metropolitan area network), which should start appearing next year and has ranges in the 10s of KM - that would be a far more worthwhile campaign imo. This will also push down the price of 3G data services. Eventually we will see fixed-mobile convergence.
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Wifi is a good idea (theoretically) for metropolitan areas. The system in use in Norwich has an access point installed in every streetlamp. Most people probably live within 10 meters of a street lamp, so the 100m range of WiFi should be more than enough.
WiMax might be good for rural areas though, where it's entirely possible people live more than 100m away from their nearest streetlamp.
In both cases, one thing that might cause problems is the presence of existing WiFi networks. Having said that, given enough channels, most WiFi access points and Routers are fairly good at avoiding interferance.