From Internet to Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi): A Study of Wi-Fi Public Hotspots Users [Part 3].

From Internet to Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi): A Study of Wi-Fi Public Hotspots Users [Part 3].

E. PATRICK UDEH, ABD, MBA.
espatfame@aol.com
Prof_udeh@yahoo.com
pudeh@tourou.edu
epu@berkeleycollege.edu
admin@wstudy.org

New York City
August 20, 2006


In recent years, other players have joined the deployment of both commercial and free public hotspots, which resulted in the development of thousands of hotspots. There are about 5,000 free hotspots and 16,000 commercial hotspots worldwide (Langos, 2003). Researchers predict there will be around 180,000 hotspots worldwide enabled with Wi-Fi, the popular protocol for delivering high-speed Internet service, by 2007 (Biddlecombe, 2003).

Long Beach, California
As an example of use in practice, the economic development bureau ofLong Beach, California is offering 8 mbps of free WI-FI access to createInternet broadband services along a four-block stretch of Pine Ave, a seaside strip running through the heart of downtown. The cost to the city is a modest $4000 per year and they hope to stir activity in its business district through this modest investment (Gubbin 2003).

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
An interesting initiative is being undertaken in Pittsburgh, where a wireless hotspot has been organized by 3 Rivers Connect, a non-profit organization, which gets the majority of its funding from the State of Pennsylvania. It has teamed up with a local start-up "Grok Technology" to lease a wireless network for a pilot scheme covering a targeted area of the city and two parks (Raffray, 2002). The project, they hope, will be an economic development initiative with a net marginal return.



Bryant Park, NYC-Midtown Manhattan
In New York City, NYCwireless installed in 2002 wireless Internet broadband access in Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan. NYCwireless plan is to set up more than 100 very short range free wireless networks in parks, building lobbies, neighborhood centers and coffee shops. The Bryant Park wireless fidelity broadband Internet access attracts over 40 users per day.
NYC Lower Manhattan

New York City, with a focus in the Lower Manhattan, presents the requirements and uniqueness necessary to study the possibility of incorporating free consumer wireless fidelity broadband Internet access as a component of a multi-project economic development strategy. In May 2003, the Alliance for Downtown New York City launched the Lower Manhattan Wireless Network, a collection of free wireless hotspots in seven large and widely used locations throughout Lower Manhattan (downtownny.com, 2003).

The locations selected by the Alliance involve citizens? use in numbers that dwarf other wireless installations. These include high traffic areas such as Bowling Green Park; City Hall Park; Liberty Park Plaza; Rector Park; 60 Wall Street; the South Street Seaport and Vietnam Veterans Plaza. According to Shirley Jaffe, Vice President for Economic Development at The Downtown Alliance, the network should allow anyone in Lower Manhattan to walk to afree, wireless Internet connection within five minutes (downtownny.com, 2003).

The Downtown Alliance was motivated to act because of the economic devastation caused by the September 11th 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. As an active participant in the rebuilding efforts, the Alliance is working hard to ensure that Lower Manhattan regains its past economic glory in view of the pain of 9/11. The attack is estimated at $83 billion in damage to New York City's economy (NYC- Partnership, 2002). The service area includes three factors of great importance to the research.

First, it includes the area of the World Trade Center. The 9/11/01 disaster at the WTC is the prime factor in the governmental and private interest in promoting economic development in the area. Secondly, the area includes varies technology incubators, including "Silicon Alley", implying a sophisticated tech-savvy population in the area. New York City even was selected as one of the intelligent communities in 2001, despite the 9/11 disasters by the Intelligent Community Forum, which is a special interest group within the World Teleport Association that focuses on the uses of broadband technology for economic development.

Intelligent communities are defined as: Communities whether within the political boundary or of a municipality or comprising a larger region, that view bandwidth as new essential utility, as vital to economic growth and public welfare as clean water and dependable electricity. They make conscious public policy choice to seize the control of the community's broadband destiny in order to ensure their businesses and citizens access to advanced information and communication services. Intelligent communities work to prosper in the Digital Age.

Rather than trying to prop up dying industries, they eagerly embrace the growth industries of tomorrow. They work to create advanced information and telecommunication infrastructure needed to gain a competitive edge in attracting and growing the leading-edge industries that create jobs in the economy of the 21st century. The introduction of widespread free consumer wireless fidelity broadband Internet access in Lower Manhattan is an attempt to extend this vision, one that could be replicated if it proves to be successful.

Finally, Lower Manhattan represents a daily work population estimated at 280,000, which thereby makes the Wi-Fi service potentially accessible by more people than anywhere else does in the nation. New York City has been on the forefront of information technology. New York City is rebuilding. Recognizing that widely accessible broadband Internetconnection is a potential facilitator to economic growth and commerce, cities and economic development organizations are beginning to test the provision of broadband Internet service through sponsored wireless fidelity (WI-FI) hubs.

Wi-Fi Users
According to Gartner, an estimated 99 million people will be using Wi-Fi by 2006. The numbers are fast approaching a true mass-market level. Wi-Fi is cheap, powerful, and, most important, it works. Among the geeks, Wi-Fi has become a fascination, a glimpse of the future of the Internet. Like the Web, it is open, unregulated, and free. Anyone can deploy it, and millions have. For many it is an epiphany - the unforgettable impact of being in the presence of something important and new. Wi-Fi technology is not limited to the office environment alone. With theproper broadcast technology, it can become an extensive wide area network, permitting an enterprise to link its staff together through a virtual private network across a corporate campus or across the country.