Citywide WiFi Coming To Houston

Tonight, I participated in a 30-minute conference call with other bloggers and Houston Mayor Bill White regarding the city's plan for a wirelesss internet network. Also participating in the call was Richard Lewis, head of IT for the city.

The city's plan will be a low cost plan for consumers (no cost for some such as students and perhaps low-income residents) and will cover 640 square miles of Houston. There will be approximately 18,000 access nodes located on places such as electrical and traffic utilities. The rollout for this plan will take up to two years to be fully implemented city wide. The use will go beyond just consumers. It will be used for city services such as parking tickets and modern communications. There will be no tax dollars involved in funding this project; all dollars will come from private sectors.

The mayor is very intent on this being a project that will bridge the digital divide in Houston and bring the internet to more people who do not currently have access. There is also a big emphasis on open architecture and numerous internet providers (and also creating more competition among internet providers).

Proposals are due to the city tomorrow from companies who want to do the startup and be the system operator. 64 firms attended a pre-submission conference on this process.

Great questions were asked by the bloggers and Mayor White and Richard Lewis were very responsive. A question was asked about hardware and software for schools and low income areas in order for them to take advantage of the WiFi. Nonprofits and businesses are doing some of the work to make that part of the equation happen, but more of that will be needed to really bridge the digital divide and bring access to everyone.

I've been in cities where free WiFi is avialable. You just pop open your laptop (with wireless card installed) and start cruising the internet. So, I asked how tourists were going to be able to take advantage of Houston's wireless network, since there will be a cost to it. 5% of the network will be for free use - all libraries, parks and some places they called "service centers". They said that convention centers and entertainment areas were still deciding how they were going to implement the service.

I was most impressed with how Mayor White answered the question, "why government for this project?" He answered, "because government is the backbone of progress." In his closing remarks, he said that while there would be disagreements with how this initiative will be implemented, those of us who have the vision for it should speak up for it.

You can participate in an online chat with the Mayor at 6:30 pm this Wednesday, May 17th, at www.hightechtexan.com. Mayor White will be out in front of the courthouse on a laptop answering your questions.

See also Lyn Wall's account of the blogger's conference call on Houston Democrats.