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<http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?c=1&slug=wifi27e0&date=20030828>
By Nick Perry
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Tourists needing to check their e-mail from a Bellevue park or Kirklanders wanting to know the latest baseball scores while eating at an outdoor restaurant soon may be able to surf the Internet simply by opening up their laptops.
The cities of Bellevue and Kirkland are considering providing wireless Internet access — Wi-Fi — as early as next year in key city areas. The two cities have combined forces to spend $50,000 to $100,000 studying telecommunication business models this fall and hope to launch the "hot zones" as part of a planned telecommunications overhaul. Working much like a cellphone, Wi-Fi eliminates the need for wires and plugs.
"Locations could include significant commercial centers, government facilities, museums and community centers, libraries and other points of community congregation," the cities say in a joint request for proposals.
Only a handful of municipalities in the country have tried to offer Wi-Fi services in broad city swaths. The Eastside cities hope to offer the service either free or at a small cost to attract tourists and improve the business climate.
"We'd love to have wireless access over the whole city, but first it would be in the downtown or Totem Lake," said Brenda Cooper, Kirkland's information-technology director. "We believe information is very important for a community's health and its economic development."
Wi-Fi technology already is embraced by companies such as Starbucks, which offers a pay subscription service at its cafes.
The Crossroads Shopping Center in Bellevue offers a free Wi-Fi service, as do all 42 King County libraries. Washington State Ferries just landed a $1 million federal grant to begin a Wi-Fi pilot project on three ferry routes.
In Kennewick, the Benton Public Utility District began offering a pay Wi-Fi service this year rather than laying costly cable. Grass-roots efforts have sprung up elsewhere, including in Seattle where SeattleWireless.net is trying to create a free community network.
"It's becoming more like a fundamental utility that people expect to have piped to them — more like turning water on at the tap," said Toni Cramer, Bellevue's chief information officer.
One municipality that has become involved in Wi-Fi is the City of Long Beach, Calif., which supported the creation of a free hot zone stretching several blocks in a downtown shopping area.
The project began six months ago and is working well, said Terry Evans, Long Beach's manager of technology infrastructure. The city is considering expanding the network.
"It really is something people think is a neat offering," he said.
The city found private enterprise willing to pay most of the set-up costs and provide ongoing technical support. The network is run by a company that gets revenue from paid advertising on a home page, Evans said. The city contributes a nominal $1,000 annually.
Washington State Ferries is contracting with Port Townsend firm Mobilisa to offer Wi-Fi services on the Seattle-Bremerton, Seattle-Bainbridge Island and Edmonds-Kingston routes. The pilot program is expected to begin next summer. Going Wi-Fi will have an additional benefit: Ferry customers will be able to use credit and debit cards onboard for the first time.
The study in the two Eastside cities also seeks ideas for improving the cities' fiber-optic networks with the aim of providing better high-speed wired connections. One option could be for the cities to compete directly with cable companies.
Bellevue and Kirkland begin interviewing four finalists for the study today, chosen from 17 initial applicants. They expect to choose a company next month.
The finalists are Power Engineers of Hailey, Idaho; CCG Consulting of Riverdale, Md.; Virchow Krause from Madison, Wis.; and W&H Pacific from Bothell.
