Wireless for Everyone!

A few weeks back I posted about my day without wireless internet. Well soon those days will be over! I am lucky enough to live in Oakland County which is now starting the Wireless Oakland project. I think it's the first in the nation that plans to blanket an entire county (910 square miles!) with wireless access. Its a very exciting concept and one I am glad to be a part of!

Since I carry my Tablet PC everywhere now I often forget to turn the wireless off before I hit the road. I was in Royal Oak the other day (about 25 minutes from my house) when I noticed these weird network names like 2WIRE543 and 2WIRE584 and I didn't think too much about it at the time. Then I went to a coffee shop on the other side of town and noticed the same names again. I just figured the entire city was wireless which is cool but the my discovery did not end there.

I tried signing on of course but had no luck. I even asked a few store managers if they knew of anything and they said a few places in town offer wireless but they didn't recognize those unusual network names so I started to realize this was something else than a city wireless program So I arrived at home and went I searched for new wireless networks the same names were shown with different numbers but the same format.

When I was downtown today I decided to check this out again and similar names were found. Then it clicked and I remembered my post about Detroit and the wireless plan! I did a little google search and am now up to date on the situation. All those networks are signs of them beginning the network install. Pilot areas should be up by the summer of 2006 ( I can't wait!) and in full service by 2007.

There is a lot of information on this at the Oakland Wireless site so if you live in the area and are interested check it out. Also I plan to post about it when its up so you'll hear it first here as well! For those that don't live in Oakland County well I'm sure if the program is a success you can expect these wireless blankets to start popping up all around the nation!

I should also note that there are going to be two services. A free one at 128 Kbps up and down and also a fee based one. There are no prices or information of the fee based one at the time but when I find I out I'll be sure to let you know!

First thing I am going to do when this is up is go driving around in my car with internet access. Who needs a GPS car navigation system with Google Earth, Map Quest and the entire internet at reach! Exciting Times!

Stay Tuned!

Oakland Wireless

posted by Jason Dorko at 8:28 PM 1 comments links to this post