toledoblade.com --

When Toledo announced plans last week for a citywide wi-fi network, it was catching up with more than 300 communities across the country.

And many of those communities are in Michigan.

While no state bests California for the number of communities - 31 - with municipal wireless projects either built or under way, Michigan is No. 2 with 13, according to a list compiled by MuniWireless.com. Ohio has four.

Municipal wireless networks are on the way in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids, across all 910 square miles of southeast Michigan's Oakland County, in the tourist-destination town of Traverse City, and even in the frosty Upper Peninsula town of Marquette.

And, just an hour north of Toledo, 20/20 Communications is creating a $26 million, privately funded, 720-square-mile wi-fi network for Ann Arbor and all of Washtenaw County.

For Michigan, and for a growing numbers of Americans, it's quickly becoming all about connectivity - all the time, everywhere.

Wi-fi, shorthand for wireless fidelity, allows users to browse the Internet anywhere they go. With a high-bandwidth connection, they can watch television shows, send home videos to grandma, and even talk on the telephone without paying by-the-minute charges.

ABI Research reports that while municipal wi-fi networks covered 1,500 square miles worldwide in 2005, that figure will increase by 2010 to 126,000 square miles, or an area about the size of New Mexico.

Toledo is planning to be part of that expansion.

While Toledoans can access high-speed wireless internet in their homes via Buckeye Express or through their telephone lines with a technology called DSL - digital subscriber loop - and a few other services, the network proposed by the city would post antennae every 600 to 800 feet on structures such as traffic light arms, utility poles, and buildings. The idea is to create a cloud of Internet availability across the city's 88 square miles with no use of tax dollars.

The antennae would broadcast the Internet on an unlicensed radio frequency that most computers and hand-held electronic devices today can receive.

The signal from these antennae have a short range, and will be unable to penetrate far into buildings without the home owner or business acquiring another device. But the great number of antennae the city expects to be deployed, as well as technology that allows the user to rapidly pick up radio signals from one antenna after another, is expected to allow police and fire personnel to access the network while moving at speeds of up to 70 mph, said Patsy Scott, Toledo's director of information and communications technology.

The city intends to grant a license to one wi-fi provider to extend service all over Toledo. The provider will pay to mount its antennae on city property, and it will have to negotiate a price with Toledo Edison to use any of its utility poles as antenna sites.

In exchange for the license, the provider must give city government free Internet access, as well as provide access - possibly at a slower, lower bandwidth - in some public spaces such as parks and public housing. Low-income residents will be offered service for not more than $10 a month, and other residents can be charged no more than $20 per month for the first year of service.

This kind of connectivity will be the rule rather than the norm not too far in the future, said Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia. The New Media Institute created one of the nation's first wireless networks in downtown Athens, Ga., five years ago. While the network is modest, extending 24 blocks, it was designed to test new technologies for public Internet use.

Mr. Shamp said people will soon expect such networks everywhere they go.

"Just like people expect street lights, people are going to start to expect connectivity. The generation graduating college now expects to be connected all the time," Mr. Shamp said.

In many parts of the country, hotels use free wireless Internet access as a way to attract guests. Maxwell's Brew on Bancroft Street, Panera Bread stores, and even Burger Kings in Toledo offer free wireless access to draw in customers.

But Mr. Shamp envisions other uses for wi-fi as well, and none of them involves a guy in a coffee shop working on a laptop. He asked:

"Did you really build this so people would come to the coolest town in America, with the coolest people in America, and act like they're in their office?"

For him, the future is hand-held devices such as iPods and cell phones, and the tailored-to-downtown information they can provide.

"I don't believe laptops are mobile-media devices. I'm much more interested in iPods and cell phones," he said.

Students at the University of Georgia developed a "buddy-finder" program that allows users to let their friends know where they are during a night on the town.

Students created a walking tour of downtown Athens that takes a visitor to the places where such famous Athens bands as the B-52s and R.E.M. played. At each location, the tourist gets a little history and hears a snippet of music.

When a local bookstore owner complained that people were picking out books in his store, then sitting right outside and using the Athens wireless zone to order the book from Amazon, the university group created information tailored to give a leg up to downtown businesses.

But for most communities, wireless networks are about those people with the laptop in the coffee shop or in the office. It's about attracting business, keeping business, and growing business.

Oakland County's ambitious wi-fi deployment places creating a high-tech future prominently on its list of goals. The county began setting up network antennae earlier this month and expects to finish the entire county no later than early 2008.

"If we're going to change our county to more of a high-tech economy, we need to have this network in place," said Phil Bertolini, Oakland deputy county executive. "We felt it was the right time. We have a mobile work force trying to get work done with limited connectivity to the Internet."

Michigan's success in deploying wireless networks may, in part, stem from the state's decision to do something about its lagging broadband-access status after a 2001 Federal Communications Commission report revealed that the eighth most-populous state ranked 24th in broadband deployment growth.

As a result, the state passed laws to limit barriers to broadband deployment and identified underserved areas.

It also created a $35 million low-interest loan and grant program for broadband projects - both wireless and fiber-optic cable.

A 2004 report by TechNet, which promotes technology, and Analyses, which conducts technology research, rated Michigan No. 1 for its adoption of policies that encourage broadband deployment. Ohio was rated No. 5.

But despite Michigan's success, and California's runaway wireless growth, the United States lags behind much of the world in connectivity, whether through fiber-optic cables, or in the wireless world.

"The U.S. doesn't really have a broadband policy. It's the only country left that doesn't. Even Congo has a broadband policy now," said Esme Vos, creator of MuniWireless.com.

"The United States is just doing terrible in broadband," agreed Bailey White, a senior partner in Atlanta-based Civitium, a technology consulting firm for municipal governments. "It's the technology we're sort of famous for, and we're 16th or lower in the world in terms of broadband penetration and going down.

"Cities are smart in saying, 'We've got to find ways to remedy this.'•"

Contact Jenni Laidman at:
jenni@theblade.com or
419-724-6507.

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