In a WiFi-friendly city, it's hard to be hungry, or lost October 10, 2005
In the high-tech city of Oulu, Finland, anyone with a wireless laptop or mobile device won't go hungry or stay lost. The city government and two universities joined in 2003 to create a WiFi network that provides free wireless high-speed Internet access. Users can tap into the system, and utilizing location-based technologies provided by vendors such as Ekahau Inc., they can find restaurants nearby while an interactive feature allows merchants to send them a list of daily specials or a coupon for lunch. University libraries can be a maze. But college students in Oulu can use their laptops or PDAs to look up a book title on the university library's online catalog, and then receive directions to the book's exact location in the stacks, based on where the student is currently situated. ''It walks you to where the book is," said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president of business development for Ekahau, which provides the positioning software for the system. Users can also pinpoint the location of a friend with whom they're exchanging instant messages across the town plaza. ANDREW CAFFREY --- You are currently subscribed to telecom-cities as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manage your mail settings at http://forums.nyu.edu/cgi-bin/nyu.pl?enter=telecom-cities RSS feed of list traffic: http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@forums.nyu.edu/maillist.xml
