CULVER CITY LAUNCHES FREE WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS IN DOWNTOWN DISTRICT Revolutionary Technology Brings Free Broadband Outdoors to Downtown Culver City Culver City, Calif., (September 2004) The City of Culver City is pleased to announce the launch of free wireless internet access in Downtown Culver City effective Thursday, September 9. This service, called Wi-Fi for Wireless-Fidelity, is the first broadband wireless hotspot on Los Angeles Westside. It offers laptop users the ability to log-on to the internet without the use of phone lines or traditional wires that bind most internet use to the office or home. A kick-off party and demonstration of Wi-Fi in action is scheduled for Thursday, September 9 at 12:30 in Town Plaza at the intersection of Culver and Washington Boulevards in Downtown Culver City. Technical staff from Wireless Hotspot, Inc. will be available to offer free Wi-Fi support and demonstrations, along with music and refreshments. Staff will be available through 6:00 P.M. The general public is encouraged to bring laptops to this free event. On an everyday basis, users will be able to handle e-mail correspondence, get the latest weather, stock and sports updates, search the news everything a person would normally expect from the internet, but for free, anywhere they choose outdoors in Downtown Culver City. Downtowns hotspot covers an area of approximately one square mile from Trader Joes at Culver & Ince to the edge of the Sony Pictures campus at Washington & Hughes five blocks west. The district includes Town Plaza, an outdoor performance and gathering spot; a public park, the Culver Hotel, numerous outdoor cafes and retailers, and a number of offices including Culver Studios and Westwood One. This new technology is as revolutionary as when phones were freed from cords and plugs. Now, you can sit on a park bench, in a caf� or under a market umbrella and browse or write to your hearts content, states John H. Richo, Director, Information Technology, whose department initiated the project. The project is funded by the Citys Redevelopment Agency. Community Development Director Susan Evans states, As an important hub of the entertainment industry where high numbers of creative personnel are employed, Culver City embraces new technologies that lay the groundwork for new and more flexible ways to work. Any wireless-equipped laptop which includes almost all manufactured from 2002 onwards - can easily access this new, free service, states Joseph Hsieh, founder and president of Wireless Hotspot Inc., the company retained by the City of Culver City to deploy the new technology. Even without a built-in receiver, it is easy to buy and install a wireless card from any major computer store. Wireless Hotspot, Inc offers end-to-end wireless internet and network access solutions for retail, hospitality, government and other agencies. Wireless Hotspot is a privately funded company based in Los Angeles and incubated by the FAME Renaissance Center. FAME is a joint effort of the Community Development Department of Los Angeles, the Economic Development Administration, Department of Commerce, Wells Fargo Bank, and State Farm Insurance Company. To implement this pioneering project, Wireless Hotspot partnered with Firetide and Vernier Networks. Firetide is a privately held wireless mesh technology company that develops networking equipment for large Wireless Instant Networks, like Downtown Culver Citys. Firetide's Instant Networking, which utilizes mesh overlays, is a technology developed by the military and allows for identical signaling from numerous sources simultaneously. Downtown Culver City employs this feature to allow for continuous-stream access unbroken by interference from buildings, trucks, trees or any potentially impeding object that could obstruct the broadband signal. Vernier Networks provides the technology that addresses security issues created by Wi-Fi users inside the network. Vernier received InfoWorlds 2004 Technology of the Year Award for Best WLAN (Wi-Fi Local Area Network) solution and 2003 Product of the Year Award from Network Magazine. Vernier is a privately held company headquartered in Mountain View, California. For further information: Alicia Weintraub Redevelopment Agency (310) 253-5778 Carlos Vega Department of Information Technology (310) 253-5975
