Wi-Fi Comes to LA

Villaraigosa pledges citywide Wi-Fi by 2009
By James S. Granelli and Tony Barboza, Times Staff Writers3:06 PM PST, February 13, 2007

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today pledged to blanket all of Los Angeles with free or very cheap wireless Internet service by 2009. If successful, the plan would create the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi network in terms of square miles covered and the number of people given access.

Telecommunications providers and advertisers are likely to bear most of the cost for the project, which the city intends to put out to bid as early as this fall.

"This will give a leg up to our businesses and reach technologically isolated parts of our city," said Villaraigosa during a downtown news conference this afternoon.

The city plans to allow the winning bidder to put antennas on its telephone poles, city buildings and other structures to beam broadband access to residents, schools and businesses. Ideally, such a ubiquitous wireless network would give anyone in Los Angeles an uninterrupted high-speed Internet connection for work, browsing or even phone calls.

"With L.A. Wi-Fi, we are dedicating ourselves to the idea that universal access to technology makes our entire economy stronger," Villaraigosa said. More than 300 municipalities nationwide already have launched plans for similar networks based on the Wi-Fi technology that has become popular at coffee shops, bookstores, in parks and countless other hot spots.

Villaraigosa said the city should be able to build on the efforts of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston and other cities across the country.

"This is pretty amazing," said Esme Vos, who founded MuniWireless.com, a website that has become an authority on municipal projects nationwide. "It's a large area, yet an urban project. That's kind of new."

It was not clear how much the network would cost to build and operate. Mark Wolf, the city's assistant general manager for information technology, said such systems cost about $125,000 for every square mile of coverage.

At nearly 470 square miles, a Los Angeles Wi-Fi network would cost $58.75 million. In San Francisco, a proposal by Google and Earthlink to set up and run a wireless system has raised issues about having the private sector running a public utility and service. The city continues to look into whether it should operate and own its own Wi-Fi network.

Villaraigosa acknowledged some of skepticism surrounding a citywide system but said that the L.A. Wi-Fi initiative is "not going to be a study to put on the shelf."

Courtesy of The Los Angeles Times

james.granelli@latimes.comtony.barboza@latimes.com