The Deets

I noticed the antennas were being installed on Tuesday morning on 46th Ave S while I was on the way to work. Now I see a signal on the home front:

The Star Tribune has published US Internet’s rollout schedule for city-wide WiFi. It’s already in place along Franklin in Seward. Here are a few dates I thought were interesting:

Wi-fi Rollout In Minneapolis

June 5: All of downtown

June 27: Longfellow/Powderhorn/Phillips

Nov. 2: Nokomis

Maybe Nathan’s close enough to Longfellow to grab a signal before November?

Are you considering switching over to this? From what I’ve heard about the service, I’m not at this point. It costs about 1/2 of what I spend with Comcast for cable ISP, but also has lower speeds. The flexibility of accessing the network from anywhere in the city isn’t a particularly big sell for me since there are so many places with free access outside of my home already.

Quick quote from your media whore about a new free WiFi network out of Spain that’s invading the United States:

Starbucks’ Pushy New Neighbor

Some businesses already offer free Wi-Fi as a way to attract customers. Large chain restaurants such as Schlotzsky’s and Panera Bread Co. have offered free Wi-Fi for years. In fact, Panera operates one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in the country.

“There are some costs involved in setting up and maintaining the network, but none of that changes with the Fon deal,” said Ed Kohler, a web-business developer and blogger at TechnologyEvangelist.com. “Businesses will see the most benefit from providing free Wi-Fi in exchange for a customer relationship. … I don’t think this will have a significant effect on the uptake of Wi-Fi. Businesses who saw Wi-Fi as a draw have likely already adopted it by now.”

If case you’re not a regular reader of Advertising Age. It’s a magazine about . . . wait for it . . . advertising. They put articles between the ads to mix things up a bit.

Peter Fleck has a great update on the Minneapolis WiFi scene. It turns out it’s available now in Seward. He even has a link to a map of the WiFi antennas.

The PF HYPER Blog: Wireless in Minneapolis

If you live in the Seward area, you can also subscribe to the system for $14.95/month (1-3Mbps) or $24.95/month (3-6Mbps). The subscription service is in place as they sent out a mailing a while back.

A comfortable place for wireless exploration would be the 2nd Moon Coffee Shop at 2225 East Franklin Avenue. You should be able to see the USI Wireless network there and you can browse the Web via the free wireless at 2nd Moon if you don’t want to pay USI for some browsing time.