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Jul 9, 2007 11:56 pm US/Pacific
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Riverside To Get Free Wi-Fi Internet Access
Limited Service Begins Tuesday
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (CBS) ―
Riverside will get free Internet access on Tuesday in the first phase of what will eventually be a city-wide Wi-Fi broadband network operation.
To mark the beginning of AT&T's Metro Wi-Fi service, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at Riverside City Hall.
The service is a combined effort of AT&T, the city government, and municipal Internet network builder MetroFi and will initially cover a 3-square-mile area -- which encompasses downtown Riverside, Hunter Technology Park and the Adams Auto Center, according to AT&T spokeswoman Blair Klein.
"This is AT&T's first deployment of municipal Wi-Fi," Klein said. "When it's fully built out, it will be the largest dual-use, mesh network anywhere in the country."
The next phase of development will cover the entire city, except for a few outlying areas. The build-out should be finished by December or January, Klein said.
"Those who want to go onto the World Wide Web will really benefit," city spokesman Austin Carter said. "And it will also help out with public safety."
A key facet of the network is its use of two spectrums -- a 2.4 Gigahertz frequency for the general public, and a 4.9 Gigahertz frequency for police and fire, according to Riverside Chief Information Officer Steve Reneker.
"The 4.9 gig frequency is secure and encrypted so we don't have to worry about hacking," Reneker said.
Until the network is fully active throughout Riverside, the public safety spectrum will not be totally operational, Klein said. When that begins, police officers can transmit live video feeds from their dashboard cameras to police headquarters. Dispatchers can then ill be able to send video to patrol units, according to Klein.
Traffic management, baseball field lighting systems and monitoring areas that are prone to graffiti vandalism and illegal dumping will also benefit from the network, Klein said.
Klein described the consumer-municipal broadband set-up as a "mesh." She called it the result of a successful public-private partnership between Riverside's city government, which provided the locations for outdoor network nodes, AT&T, which deployed the technology, and MetroFi, which developed the architecture.
Riverside's City Council approved the partnership in October. According to Carter, the first phase of the wireless broadband network was then built and tested.
Though access to the network is free, users will see frequent advertisements as they access Web sites, which is part of the deal with MetroFi. However, ad-free access can be purchased with a $7.99 day pass or $15.99 weekly pass, Carter said.
Securing a Wi-Fi signal requires local area network reception, which comes standard on most current laptops. Desktop computer users can also acquire a Wi-Fi signal if they're equipped with a wireless card and not behind a brick wall, Klein said.
The network was designed primarily for outdoor access, Klein said.
Other Riverside County cities considering free wireless broadband deployment include Corona and San Jacinto. Temecula has offered free service in the Old Town area since last summer.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)