The new citywide wireless network, which is set to cover the Madison downtown area by March, will charge a subscription fee for users.
An Atlanta-based company, Cellnet, and San Diego's WFI have taken on the project, which was delayed when America Online pulled out in August.
Cellnet spokesman Don McDonnell said network installation will restart 'virtually immediately.' Phase I, a wireless network covering nine square miles of the downtown area, is intended to be online by March. Coverage of the entire city of Madison is planned for 2007.
'We believe Madison is one of the more technically savvy cities in the Midwest,' McDonnell said. 'We believe that there's going to be significant demand for wireless internet services that are ubiquitous and available regardless of location in the city ?? it's a very powerful, powerful thing.'
Citywide wireless coverage is advantageous because it allows customers to use their laptop in their home, a friend's home, a park or a government building and still be in contact with transmitters in the same network, McDonnell said.
A potential downside to the network could arise if too many users attempted to contact the same access point.
'It could choke the bandwidth to some extent,' UW-Madison associate professor Akbar Sayeed said.
Cellnet has not quoted a price for access to the wireless fidelity network because the company is a wholesale operator that will rent bandwidth to local internet service providers.
'The bandwidth, the speed of the network and the pricing of the packages will be competitive with DSL and other wire-based high-speed internet access services,' McDonnell said.
The initial impetus for the project came from Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who proposed Madison-wide wireless internet as part of his Healthy City economic plan of 2004. The city has continued to push for the network by granting Cellnet access to the public domain for wireless transmitters.
'That is what the city brings to the table, all that infrastructure that has already been put in place,' Cieslewicz's spokesperson Mario Mendoza said.
'Madison often has been listed as one of the most wired cities in the country,' Mendoza added. 'It would make sense that we would want to enhance that natural feature of Madison's human landscape ?? We're going from a highly wired to a highly wireless community.'
