Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM and two partners – SeaKay and Azulstar have been awarded the contract to build a public 802.11-based wireless mesh that is intended to cover most of the
Silicon Valley peninsula of California. Other than just surfind for fun, the network will also be the infrastructure for dedicated services to public safety, health care and other municipal departments. Now that's good for the community's health. This new Cisco, IBM project will offer a public 802.11-based wireless mesh to 2.4 million residents in 42 communities using the year-old Cisco 1500 dual-radio mesh product.
According to Computerworld :
Cisco and IBM joined with Azulstar Networks, a Michigan municipal wireless networking company founded in 2002, and with SeaKay, a California nonprofit group that organizes the use of digital technologies to improve social services in underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The four created a joint venture called Silicon Valley Metro Connect.The partnership will offer up to 1Mbit/sec. as a free base service, with an array of privacy protections. Wireless VoIP and video streaming will be fee-based services. In 2007, the partnership plans to deploy IEEE 802.16 WiMAX base stations for fixed and mobile wireless broadband users.
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