Calgary likes to think it’s one of the hottest spots around for business, but now a new citywide initiative is opening up streets and other public spaces to the cool new world of Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi, short for Wireless Fidelity, is the popular name for 802.11-based technologies that allow users to access the Internet through “hot spots” – special wireless access points that can be located in restaurants, hotels or anywhere the public congregates.
Earlier this week, Calgary officials announced four new hot spot “showcases” in the downtown area as part of Wireless City, a project first launched last year to boost the city’s wireless technology sector. Located at the Olympic Plaza, two floors in the W.R. Castell Public Library, the municipal building and Stephen Avenue East, the hot spots will offer limited free access to the Internet for a year.
“There’s no physical presence, other than you sit in those areas and have wireless coverage,” says Richard Belzil, director of the Wireless City program, which is being administered by Calgary Technologies Inc., a not-for-profit group that promotes economic development in the city’s high-tech community.
“You can sit down in Olympic Plaza if you’d like to enjoy your lunch and try an hour of free Internet browsing. When your browser comes up, you’ll see a screen from us saying: ‘Welcome to Wireless City – here’s who built this for you, and have a nice browse on us.’ ”
After the free hour is up, users will be invited to link to a commercial Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) to buy additional time.
Several local and national telecom and wireless companies have jumped on board the Wireless City bandwidth-wagon, including Wi-LAN, Guest-Tek, NetWireless, Cisco Systems and Fringe Solutions.
Major sponsors include TELUS Mobility, Nortel Networks, Western Economic Diversification Canada and Alberta Innovation and Science. Western Economic Diversification Canada provided $388,700 for the initiative, the same amount as Calgary Technologies Inc.
"Calgary is uniquely positioned to become the dominant Canadian force in wireless communications," noted Secretary of State Stephen Owen. "Strength in this dynamic sector means that the city and the province will become a magnet for investment and business development in the West."
Alberta Innovation and Science Minister Victor Doerksen said this province has become the highest per-capita user of wireless services and a major exporter of wireless products and services in North America.
Hot spot users require a 802.11b network interface, which is standard on most new computers but can also be purchased and installed in laptops or handheld devices.
Belzil says although not everybody will be able to access the free service with their existing gadgets, most new devices will within a couple of years. “The (users) today would be fairly early adopters. A year from now, it will be getting to be mainstream,” he says.
The free Wireless City locations will be “branded” with a logo designed by Calgary-based Kanga Communications.
Belzil noted that hot spots are already sweeping the globe, with the wave expected to continue over the next two to three years while the key geographic areas are covered.
“People are describing it as a land grab,” he says.
“Nobody is quite sure how the business model will play out necessarily, but they know it will play out, so they’re moving now to equip and get the real estate under their control.”
One of the prospectors in the rush is NetWireless, which already offers three hot spot locations in Calgary.
Wholly owned by Quebec-based Hartco, the company is building a cross-Canada network of public Internet access points.
Darren Stokes, chief operating officer for NetWireless, said his company decided to get involved in the project as a good vehicle to promote Wi-Fi use. “We liked the idea of what it was trying to do – we thought that if we could do the same thing here like they did in Bryant Park, it would be a good thing for the community as well as bringing a lot of (attention) to Wi-Fi in general,” he said.
New York’s Bryant Park is a huge public Wi-Fi hot spot, offering three access points covering the entire park that allow users to surf the ’Net as long as they wish for free.
Along with its Vancouver-based WISP partner FatPort, NetWireless has inked deals with several Calgary businesses, including the Holiday Inn downtown, Timothy’s coffee shop in Banker’s Hall and the Adventure Zone on Macleod Trail. Stokes says businesses buy a special controller for about $1,000 which covers about 300 feet of service area, and in return get a revenue share of the commercial hot spot usage.
“As time goes along and this becomes more widely adopted, the revenue will certainly increase,” he predicts.
Belzil says hot spot users need to remember they’re on a public network. “You’re on an open interface, so if you’re browsing websites, someone could monitor your session if they want,” he said. Those working with their corporate websites or email accounts will likely use their own virtual private network connection, he added.
“I don’t want to say there are no risks, but you are out on the open Internet, so you should behave accordingly.”
Meanwhile, a new home technology research centre called Homefree is being set up at TRLabs in Calgary with a joint $42.5-million federal-provincial grant.
The Homefree division will help develop advanced technologies to be used in the home, capitalizing on the trend of the home becoming an office, a marketplace, an entertainment hub and a centre for health and wellness.
“The home is a convenience, safety and efficiency comfort zone for people, and the migration of wired and wireless technologies to the home environment is a perfect marriage of technology with human desire and need,” says Stephen Owen, Secretary of State for Western Economic Diversification.
TRLabs president and CEO Roger Pederson notes that much research needs to be done to create seamless, inter-operable and largely invisible technology to make human interaction with technology easier and more satisfying.
Sun Microsystems and IONA Home Systems also announced Monday that they will participate in the home technologies research at TRLabs.
TRLabs is a not-for-profit ICT research consortium with labs in five western cities and 54 partners in industry, government and the academic community.
