Earthlink, the beleaguered ISP which is betting the farm on municipal wireless turned on its Muni WiFi network in the city of Anaheim. Earthlink calls its WiFi initiatives – Feather. The network went live on June 29 at a “wire cutting ceremony”. Curt Pringle, the Mayor of Anaheim officially ‘unwired’ the City at a wire cutting ceremony, which was also attended by Motorola, Tropos Networks and of course Earthlink executives. (More reports here.)
The service on this network is going to cost $21.95 a month. A $3.95 for a one-hour pass to $15.95 for a three-day pass are also available. The network will also serve as a platform for City, business and wholesale partners to access EarthLink’s municipal network for their employees and end-users. In addition to the network, the company has also signed up wholesale partners – PeoplePC (EarthLink’s wholly-owned subsidiary) and DirecTV – who will get access to the Earthlink Muni WiFi Networks. In addition, EarthLink has reached a non-binding agreement with AOL and is discussing ways to offer its AOL.com content and Web assets on EarthLink’s municipal network.
PS: if you live in Anaheim, I would like you to send me a review of the service if you end up using it. An honest and on the ground appraisal of the service.
Great post — thanks. I will really look forward to hearing what people think of the service. Hopefully you’ll get responses and post them here.
Earthlink SCAM! this is only the first stage of the rollout in Anaheim – not citywide! Basically a downtown hotspot.
See for yourself:
http://www.anaheim.net/docsagend/questyspub/MG9546/AS9585/AS9588/AI11217/DO11249/1.DOC
The May 30, 2006 City Council meeting was called to order at 3:13 P.M. in the Council Chambers of Anaheim City Hall, 200 South Anaheim Boulevard.
PRESENT: Mayor Curt Pringle, Council Members: Richard Chavez, Lorri Galloway, Bob Hernandez and Harry Sidhu.
STAFF PRESENT: City Manager Dave Morgan, City Attorney Jack White, and City Clerk Sheryll Schroeder.
A copy of the agenda for the meeting of the Anaheim City Council was posted on May 26, 2006 at the City Hall exterior bulletin board.
EARTHLINK CITYWIDE WIFI WORKSHOP
Tom Wood, Assistant City Manager, provided an update on the EarthLink WIFI system. Providing background details, he reported Council had authorized a franchise with EarthLink for one of the largest municipal WIFI networks to be privately constructed in the nation that would serve the entire City of Anaheim. He stated the implementation details had been worked through and antenna installation had begun with two square miles now completed as part of the six mile test area in which EarthLink was required to perform a proof of concept as part of the franchise agreement. Mr. Wood indicated the test area was located near City Hall and the antennas could be seen if you looked for them, although they blended into the street lights and/or traffic light poles. EarthLink, he added, would soon go to full deployment Citywide and the only issues remaining were in the Resort area relating to aesthetics for the different style and color of street lights and in Anaheim Hills due to the topography. Mayor Pringle asked what the June 29th target date intended and Mr. Wood responded the six square miles of test area would be up and operating and testing of the performance standards would be completed. Nine months after that date, Mr. Wood indicated the rest of the City would be operational.
even Earthlink’s map shows this to be the case:
http://www.emnwifi.com/cities/anaheim/
Hi Kimo –
I posted some photos of the current and planned network on Earthling, and am happy to help clarify any other questions you have about the extent of it as best I can. The wire cutting ceremony was to celebrate the launch of the network, not the completion of every node. I saw that you posted a similar comment over at Earthling and I answered it more completely over there ( http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/07/wrappinguptheanaheimcovera.php ).
I am happy to report I have subscribed to Feather Wi-Fi yesterday and so far it has worked great. It was easy to subscribe and the rate plans were quite detailed.