Working wirelessly on a Samsung Q1 UMPC while listening to satellite radio with NXT technology speakers via a Wi-Max connection, Moscow attorney Janice Hill-Smith catches up on a case in a Japanese garden.
I am fortunate to be living in one of the most wirelessly connected communities in the worldMoscow, Idaho. Moscow is the home of the University of Idaho and has a population of about 21,000, including almost 13,000 students. It probably has more hotspots and better Internet connectivity per capita than any other place on the planet. This good fortune becomes even more apparent when I travel around the country, facing the challenges of staying connected.
Moscow is a pure pleasure for a Pocket PC and Smartphone packer. It must be a pleasure for visitors as well because almost all of the restaurants and all of the hotels and motels have free high speed wireless connectivity. Book stores, coffee shops, libraries, and shopping malls are all lit up too. Of course we have some of the bad guys who charge their customers for Internet access: The UPS Store, FedEx Kinko's, and Starbucks. Unlike most airports these days, travelers enjoy free wireless Internet at the Moscow/Pullman Airport.
All the buildings and most of the grounds at the University of Idaho are lit up too. Of course you must be associated with the university to gain access, but that includes over half the town, so it's virtually a huge public hotspot.
One big hotspot
The whole town is one big Wi-Fi hotspot, thanks in part to First Step Internet. The company also provides service to 14 communities in the region, making even the smallest rural towns part of the cyber-world. Every library in the county is a free wireless access point. In addition, the swimming pool, recreation center, senior center, city offices, public schools, parks, tennis courts, and central business district are all lit up with Wi-Fi. You need a roaming account from First Step to gain access in some areas, but there are so many free public access points that it really doesn't matter much.
There are even farmers in this area who are experimenting with Wi-Fi to automate their plowing, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting. How will this change agriculture? Who knows! Maybe, with programmed tractors and combines remotely controlled by Wi-Fi, farmers of the future won't even have to get their boots muddy. They'll be able to sit in front of their computers, monitoring their automated farms and playing video games to pass the time.
Even the hospital in Moscow is a public access point. Every patient gets free Wi-Fi. I've seen people who go to the cafeteria for free coffee and free Internet access to read the morning news and check e-mailactually I'm one of them. Parents can take their kids to the swimming pool, skateboard park, or ice skating rink and conduct business online while the kids play.
It's nice to see students and residents taking advantage of the wireless connectivity in the malls and in various establishments around town. Moscow has two golf courses; both are Wi-Fi hotspots. You get so you take all this connectivity for granted. And then, you go on the road and realize that much of the rest of the country is not so lucky.
Moscow is also one of the 26 communities in the U.S. that have rolled out Clearwire's new Wi-Max service. Intel has invested heavily in Clearwire and in this technology, which uses a high-speed wireless radio that operates on a licensed 2.5 GHz frequency. In contrast, regular Wi-Fi operates on an unlicensed frequency of 2.4 GHz, which is vulnerable to scanning and packet interception. (Actually, both can be intercepted.) Theoretically, Wi-Max has the potential of reaching a 30 mile radius from a given distribution point, so that large areas can be lit up without a myriad of localized hotspots.
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