AT&T signs muni Wi-Fi deal with Napa, Calif.

Napa, Calif., has announced an agreement with AT&T Inc. for a 12-square-mile public Wi-Fi network.
The network will offer wireless broadband access for residents, visitors and businesses “from virtually all developed areas within the city,” according to AT&T. Additionally, the city will use a parallel AT&T Metro Wi-Fi system for municipal and public-safety communication needs. The system has been tested across a two-square-mile area and runs over a separate 4.9 GHz frequency. Potential uses of that network include “streaming video in police vehicles, remote meter reading, data transmissions of patient records from ambulances . and temporary or remote emergency operations centers,” according to AT&T.
The first phase of network construction is expected to be completed this summer, covering two square miles of the city; the network will then be expanded throughout the rest of 2007 and early 2008. AT&T said that final pricing and service package details would be released upon launch, but that both ad-free and paid subscriptions by day or by month will be available with speeds of up to 1 megabit per second; slower speeds of 200 kilobits per second would be available for a free, ad-supported service for up to 10 hours per month.
AT&T reported that this is its third planned Wi-Fi deployment, with one already begun in Riverside, Calif., and an additional contract recently approved by St. Louis.