Washtenaw County is going technical! Well, certain parts are thanks to a Ypsilanti-based tech startup who is offering a new way to deploy wireless internet in populated areas, which is in competition to the county’s own project.
Both projects are in aid of getting wireless internet to the masses as well as attracting federal stimulus money.
Wireless Ypsi – which offers free wireless Internet access to Ypsilanti’s entire downtown area – has had inquiries from other Michigan municipalities, real estate companies and groups outside the state. Wireless Ypsi’s emergence comes as the county’s long-standing municipal wireless effort is applying for grants or low-cost loans from the $7.2 billion apportioned in the federal economic stimulus package for extending broadband Internet access to the entire county.
Wireless Washtenaw, initiated in 2004, whose network covers 100 square miles, has nearly 600 daily users that pay monthly rates for high-speed access in rural areas – in addition to a few thousand free users in downtown Ann Arbor, Saline and Manchester.
Wireless Ypsi’s municipal wireless arm includes a network of two to three blocks in downtown Ann Arbor and they as an enterprise already have 25,000 users and are turning a profit. Both initiatives aim in allowing more and more people internet access.
Watch this space to see if either enterprise managed to attract some stimulus funds!
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