City officials intend to spread the word on Wi-Fi
CITYWIDE — City Hall is on the fast track to dial in disconnected Santa Monicans.
Plans are underway to expand free wireless Internet access at the pier, the Civic Auditorium, and the City Council chambers and courtyard at City Hall, increasing the number of public locations people can go online to 10.
The expansion is part of City Hall’s effort to make the entire city Wi-Fi enabled, a term that refers to wireless-fiber optics, a data-transporting system that is faster than traditional phone and cable services, and is quickly becoming the hottest trend in infrastructure improvements.
“We can’t claim to be the first (to Wi-Fi an entire city,) but we will be among the first,” said Jory Wolf, chief information officer at City Hall.
So far, City Hall has spent roughly $42,000 on free wireless access in public spaces, and another $500,000 improving the fiber optics network, which now supports 45 government facilities and provides a higher capacity to transport voice, video and other forms of data.
The Internet can currently be accessed at all of the city libraries, the Third Street Promenade, parts of City Hall and Virginia Avenue Park.
To expand access to the pier and auditorium will cost roughly $1,500, Wolf said.
The costs have been kept relatively low because much of the work has been done by city staff installing off-the-shelf technology, Wolf said.
The spread of Wi-Fi is being done so that personnel in the field, such as police officers, firefighters and building and safety enforcement, can work more efficiently by being quickly linked to data.
The technology will be used later this week as part of a traffic signalization program on Fourth Street between Pico Boulevard and Colorado Avenue to help better manage traffic, Wolf said. If the project is successful, Wolf said it will be expanded to cover the entire downtown area.
“We will have ample opportunities for communicating with real-time infrastructure throughout the city,” Wolf said. “Instead of digging trenches along our streets to lay communications underground, we can use Wi-Fi for communications with traffic signals, water chemistry meters and eventually remote water quality readings.”
Following the city of Anaheim’s lead, City Hall is looking for private companies such as Adelphia or Verizon to use the city’s fiber optic network to provide every resident with the opportunity for high-speed Internet access at a low cost. To use the city’s network, private companies would have to offer free Internet to residents in public spaces, Wolf said.
By trusting the free market to keep costs low, Wolf said City Hall will be able to focus on improving government communications, which in turn would help lower operating costs.
Wolf said there are no exact figures available on how many people access the Internet using the city service, but data suggests about 30 people per day.
“We haven’t done much advertising about this yet,” Wolf said. “But we intend to very soon.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 22, 2006. Read the original PDF.