By BRIAN C. RITTMEYER
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
A free Wi-Fi network Downtown could do more than just let people surf the Internet and check their e-mail.
Police could check a defendant’s criminal record, firefighters could review a building’s schematics and paramedics could access a patient’s medical records, city Councilman Bill Peduto said Sunday.
The details of a proposal to have a Wi-Fi network in place by this summer will be discussed during a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. today in City Council chambers.
Peduto said he hopes to see the effort start Downtown and, through competition among providers, eventually cover the entire city.
“We want to be the next revolution, and we want to start with Downtown,” he said. “This is going to be state-of-the-art.”
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is talking with US Wireless Online of Louisville, Ky., about providing wireless Internet access Downtown, and is seeking more than $500,000 in donations to make the network a reality. Users would be able to surf the Web free for the first two hours.
But if the experience of an Orlando, Fla., suburb is any indication, establishing a free Wi-Fi network isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. More than a month after St. Cloud, Fla., population 28,000, launched what analysts say is the country’s first free citywide Wi-Fi network, it is plagued by dead spots and weak signals. The city suggests those with trouble connecting buy a signal-boosting device for $170.
St. Cloud contracted with Hewlett-Packard Co. to build the 15-square-mile network and provide customer support.
St. Cloud is spending more than $2 million on a network that officials see as a pioneering model for freeing local families, schools and businesses from monthly Internet bills. It also promises to help the city reduce cell-phone bills and let paramedics in an ambulance talk by voice and video to hospital doctors.
Dick Skrinjar, a spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor, said it would be the vendor’s responsibility to make sure a Downtown system works. O’Connor wants the system to be running in time for the Major League All-Star Game in July, which is expected to bring thousands of visitors.
“They’re confident their capabilities will match the demand for the service,” Skrinjar said. “If they can make it work Downtown, you can make it work anywhere in Pittsburgh.”