Let's talk about Philadelphia's experiment in citywide wireless. If you're in Philadelphia, start by trying it out today and filling out our short survey - which we'll use to build this map of how the system's doing. Then come back here and discuss.
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NorthEast Phila Access
How can you tell if an access point is Active ??
I have Line of Sight to an Access Point @ Strahle and Horrocks streets, but no signal strength shown on my wireless Acer Notebook with Win XP.
There is a source shown as Custoner ID, but No Strength available.
Also I can find No Data Rate or Number of Computers allowed on the PhiladelphiaWireless Site or FAQ.
Any Answers?
Rich
S. 42 St.
Abhijit Mathew checks in:
Address where you tried the wireless : 511 S 42 Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
How many attempts to connect before successful : 1
Overall experience : 4
Your current broadband type : Other
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : Better
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Yes
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Yes
Comments : Subscribe to the paid service through Earthlink. Have been using it for the past two months. Initially it never used to connect when I was at home, had to order a Wi-Fi extender. That did'nt help matters much. Spent quite some time with their tech support online and seems like in the past 15 days they have introduced another access point. I connect through a cable to this extender and I have yet to lose the connection in this way. When I try to connect wirelessly, I don't get any reception. I can access office files through VPN but it is slow. Browsing the web as well as watching youtube videos works out fine. Speed has been good so far.
It is comparatively cheaper if you do not need extremely high speed access. Plus you can logon anywhere within the city where you get a connection. I like it primarily because I am subletting right now and do not have to sign a subscription with the cable vendors. You can terminate service at any time as well.
S. Broad St.
Chapman reports:
Address where you tried the wireless : 2200 S Broad St.
How many attempts to connect before successful : 2
Overall experience : 1
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : Worse
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : No
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : No
Comments : The connection seems very inconsistent. Most of my downloads seem to handle the blips but uploading is nearly impossible.
Normal webpage viewing is barely usable.
Earthlink talks about a home wifi base station to purchase, but these seems unnecessary and inconvenient.
Presidential Blvd.
Keith Shaw reports:
Address where you tried the wireless : 4100 Presidential Blvd Philadelphia, PA 19131
How many attempts to connect before successful : Unable to connect
Overall experience : 3
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : Worse
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Don't know
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Don't know
Comments : Technically outside of the coverage area, but we could see some glimpses of the SSID on occasion. Used the free Wi-Fi service provided by the hotel. Very good breakfast at the restaurant.
Walnut Street
Keith Shaw checks in:
Address where you tried the wireless : Independence Mall, 500 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA
How many attempts to connect before successful : 1
Overall experience : 5
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : The same
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Don't know
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Don't know
Comments : Commodore Barry Statue in front of (or behind) Independence Hall. Lots of benches for laptop users to access the network, trees provide lots of shade as well for anti-glare and cooler temperatures.
Walnut Street
Keith Shaw reports:
Address where you tried the wireless : 3631 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104
How many attempts to connect before successful : 1
Overall experience : 3
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : Worse
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Don't know
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Don't know
Comments : This was at Cereality, a breakfast cereal restaurant at the University of Pennsylvania. The restaurant offers its own free Wi-Fi, which seemed much faster and easier to access than the Wireless Philadelphia network. I got a bowl of Quisp while waiting to connect.
S. 9 St.
Keith Shaw reports from Geno's Steaks"
Address where you tried the wireless : 1219 S 9th St Philadelphia, PA 19147
How many attempts to connect before successful : 1
Overall experience : 3
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : The same
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Don't know
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Don't know
Comments : Could get a wireless signal easily, but they wanted me to pay for access, one-day pass instead of free access. Didn't pay to connect. Cheese steaks were OK.
Philadelphia Airport
Willy McCuch reports:
Address where you tried the wireless : phl airport parking lot
Connection speed : no connectivaty
How many attempts to connect before successful : 4
Overall experience : 1
Your current broadband type : Cable
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : Worse
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Yes
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Yes
Was Earthlinks first design (20 nodes/Sq Mile) Profitable
Doubling ones costs due to limitations in the Vendors Mesh products can cause a Business Case to go south very quickly.
How is Earthlink to make a profit on this network when it has to deploy 22 Additional Nodes/Sq Mile not to mention probably an additional 10+ Wireless Gateways from Motorola??
Does Earthlink plan to use their Mesh or the Alvarion Non Line of Site pre WiMAX Point to Multipoint system to capture and retain Commercial (only profitable business)customers?
Without them they do not have a Business case in Philadelphia.
When Sprint/Clearwire deploy their WiMAX solutions in Philadelphia, as they will in Chicago, they will go after the commercial business and effectively provide far more reliable Fixed WiMAX services where they have line of site. Their Mobile services will follow.
Jacomo
1300 block, Farrington Road.
Carol reports:
How many attempts to connect before successful : 3
Overall experience : 2
Your current broadband type : Other
How the municipal wireless compared to your present broadband connection? : The same
Will you use the municipal wireless network? : Yes
Would pay for premium services on the municipal network : Yes
Comments : The network is down alot. Had to call at least three time in two weeks to report problems. When I'm on it's great! Signal is never really strong, although I was told I am in a great area. Go Figure.