Les Jones

Municipal Wi-Fi > Wireless in Asheville, and Talk of Same for Downtown Knoxville

Metro Pulse's Leslie Wylie looks at talk of wireless Internet for downtown Knoxville (scroll down to reach the story). I didn't realize downtown Asheville had free wi-fi.

To date, Knoxville’s taken few steps toward acquiring its own wireless cloud, although city planners are conscious of the option. Upgrading downtown Knoxville to a wireless district would require the installation of antennas, radio devices that each emit a 200-foot radius of wireless signals, throughout the area. Knoxville’s IT director Janet Wright explains, “We love wireless, and I’ve been looking at what other cities are doing, but we’re more difficult because of location and topography.”

Currently, the city has only one public hotspot, or unmarked point of public Internet access: the City County Building. In addition, 30 non-public hotspots are located throughout downtown for the Police Department’s use. “Our policemen just pull into one of these hotspots, and they can pull up incident reports, check their email…. It’s great technology,” Wright says.