IP Democracy: Big Wi-Fi Project Planned in Colorado

Ten Colorado cities have banded together to build a geographically huge Wi-Fi network. The communities, west of Denver and stretching from Lakewood to Boulder, plan to construct a privately built and operated Wi-Fi system that covers 220 square miles and around 600,000 people.

The group, Colorado Wireless Communities network, will issue an RFP November 1 and hopes to begin building in the third quarter of 2007. The service will not be free — the cities plan to charge around $20 to $30 per month for what strikes me as very slow broadband, one to two Mbps, far slower than the 6 Mbps service currently offered by Comcast.

But the group will offer discounts to low-income residents and the cities plan to leverage the network for their own municipal services, so it’s possible that the revenues from the Wi-Fi option are a secondary concern.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on September 27, 2006 8:05 AM to IP Democracy