http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=162672
WiFi access to debut in Roxbury
By Jesse Noyes
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - Updated: 04:49 PM EST
A square mile in Roxbury will be the first residential area to
benefit from Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s initiative to blanket the city
with WiFi access.
Menino said yesterday the city will test its first WiFi pilot
project in the Grove Hall and Dudley Square neighborhoods. Under the
plan, residents of the area will be able to tap into free wireless
Internet access, which will reach as many as 5,000 households, Menino
said.
The pilot is one of the first phases in a push to install a WiFi
network throughout the city. That network would be owned and overseen
by an as-yet-unnamed nonprofit organization, which would provide
wholesale access to a number of Internet service providers.
Pam Reeve, the former high-tech executive appointed by Menino to
seek funding for the nonprofit, said the city is meeting with
neighborhood groups to discuss how and when the wireless access in
Roxbury will be rolled out. “My hope is we’ll be well under way by
the end of the year,” she said.
Menino touted the test project as a way of bridging the “digital
divide” between economic classes.
WiFi access will initially be available for free in the Roxbury
neighborhoods and then, after a period of time, prices are expected
to be between $10 and $15 a month.
The envisioned citywide wireless network would charge a similiar
monthly rate for residents while providing free access in public areas.
Menino also formally lit two large-scale WiFi hotspots around
Quincy Market and Columbus Park. Those areas are available for free
and are meant to drive business and tourism.
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