Results tagged “earthlinkmunicipalnetworks”

City Council members on Wednesday approved a contract with EarthLink to build Houston's wireless Internet network, putting the city a step closer to having the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi setup — or, as KHOU has apparently taken to calling it, a "wireless Internet bubble." (Not one, we hope, like this.)

There's something we've been wondering ever since we heard about Houston's coming municipal Wi-Fi network, and the Chronicle's Alexis Grant has finally asked the question for us: How well is the network going to work? The answer: not too badly, but don't get your hopes up — it'll be a step up from dial-up, but not nearly as fast as home cable Internet service.

A couple more details today on Houston's municipal Wi-Fi plan: According to the AP, pending City Council approval, Atlanta-based EarthLink Municipal Networks would spend $50 million to set up the 600-square-mile network, which will require 10,000 transmitters to be placed on light and utility poles (and, perhaps, rooftops) across the city. In short, it's going to be big, and Mayor Bill White didn't miss out on a chance to do a little bragging yesterday: Referring to other cities' wireless networks, he said, "You could put all their square miles, add them up and double, and you'll come up with about the square miles of the city of Houston that will be covered by the project." We feel so Houston proud. (The Chronicle's NewsWatch: City Hall has a podcast of yesterday's announcement and press conference on the proposal.)

The Chronicle reports today that Mayor Bill White plans to announce a contract proposal for the citywide Wi-Fi network today. Among the details to be announced this afternoon is which company has been selected to build the $60 million network, which will be the largest of its kind in the United States. But in an interview with the Chronicle yesterday, White gave some of the general terms of the deal, including pricing structure. The mayor...

So we now know the two frontrunners in the bid to build Houston's citywide wi-fi network: EartLink Municipal Networks, run by Internet giant Earthlink, and Convergent Broadband, a local group with former Reliant Energy CEO Don Jordan at the helm. And that's about all we know: No official announcement has been made, though the city could name its final pick for the wi-fi vendor as early as the end of this week, according to the...