Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee

[chtechboard AT willraymond.org]

"Google and EarthLink have teamed up to offer to build a free citywide
wireless network here — one of six proposals by companies and nonprofit
groups vying to become the municipality's access provider."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/technology/23wifi.html

This http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13938106.htm
article points out the scale and cost, at least to the providers, of
the system.

"The network would require EarthLink to install about 1,500 radio
transmitters -- made by Sunnyvale's Tropos company -- atop light poles
across the city. It would cost $6 million to $7 million to install and $15
million for maintenance, upgrades and billing for the next 10 years,
according to Don Berryman of EarthLink's municipal WiFi division."

That's $7M to cover SFs rather hilly 47 sq/mi. , roughly in line with
Gregg and Steve's # BUT at a density of 32 TROPOS proprietary units per
square/mi. - enough to handle the many thousands of concurrent highspeed
connections anticipated by Earthlink.  Somewhat of a "cadillac" service
compared to our more modest initial requirements.