Downtown, Chapel Hills get wireless Internet service

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 1, 2006 | by WAYNE HEILMAN THE GAZETTE

You can get wireless Internet service in your home. You can surf wirelessly in just about any coffee shop.

Starting today, you can hook your laptop up to the Internet from a park bench, a street corner, your office -- just about anywhere in two Colorado Springs neighborhoods.

SkyTel Corp., a unit of Verizon Communications Inc., launches a program today to test out its UnpluggedCity high-speed wireless service that covers not just caf nooks, but entire neighborhoods.

"This is something we have been looking to do for at least seven years to get our city ready for the future," said Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera. "It will make us more competitive with other cities across the county for economic development."

Although Mississippi-based SkyTel officials wouldn't comment Tuesday about the program, the company's www.unpluggedcity.com Web site offers the 3 megabitper-second service to home-based customers for $24.99 a month. Other plans are available for small businesses and large organizations, and the company sells the service at hourly and daily rates.

The home-user price is about $18 a month less than what Adelphia Communications Corp. charges for its high-speed cable Internet service and $30 a month less than what Qwest Communications International Inc. charges for its digital subscriber line (DSL) service, though both discount their services for customers who sign up for three months to a year.

An Adelphia spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment on whether it will match SkyTel's monthly price. A Qwest spokesman said the company "always looks at making our offerings as competitive as possible."

SkyTel installed networks covering about two square miles each in the downtown and Chapel Hills areas atop 35 Colorado Springs Utilities streetlight poles, city traffic signal arms and city buildings by paying the city and its utility the standard rate of $12.41 a year for each pole it is using.

The downtown coverage area includes about 1,600 households and more than 250 businesses, while the Chapel Hills coverage area includes about 600 households and at least 150 businesses, according to the Census Bureau, Downtown Partnership and mall records.

Not everyone likes the idea. David Hughes, a wireless Internet pioneer and owner of Old Colorado City Communications, which offers wireless Internet service to businesses, said the city is offering SkyTel a "sweetheart deal" in areas that already have several highspeed Internet options rather than parts of the city with no such service. "What is the public purpose here of allowing a private vendor to compete with existing services?" Hughes said.

While the pilot program will run for just a year, SkyTel President Bruce Deer said in September that the networks will remain in place. The company is running the pilot program to find out whether it can offer the service profitably and expand it.

Offering wireless highspeed Internet service to entire neighborhoods and cities is a national trend. SkyTel launched its first pilot program for the UnpluggedCity service last November in downtown Lexington, Ky., with the same pricing plans.

Philadelphia officials signed a 10-year contract Monday with Earthlink Inc. to provide wireless Internet service citywide.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0234 or wayneh@gazette.com

UNPLUGGEDCITY SERVICES

SkyTel Corp. is offering wireless high-speed Internet services under the UnpluggedCity brand as part of a pilot program in two areas of Colorado Springs:

Coverage areas: Downtown and near Chapel Hills Mall (see maps)

Speed: 3 megabits (3 million bits) per second

Cost: $5.99 per hour; $9.99 per day; $24.99 per month for residential customers, $69.99 per month for small-business customers and $575 per month for large organizations. Users also must pay $20 start-up fee and $149 for modem, but start-up fee and first month of service are free and $100 rebate is given with modem for a two-year contract.

Other equipment needed: Users can connect computers to modem with ethernet cable or create a network with a wireless router.

Information www.unpluggedcity.com or 1-800-815-9538

SOURCE: UnpluggedCity.com