Washington D.C. considering public Wi-Fi network

Washington, D.C., elected officials are considering empaneling a task force to explore provisioning of a public Wi-Fi network geared toward closing the so-called digital divide.
Led by city council member Vincent Orange, there’s a meeting set for Wednesday to further discuss putting the task force together. If these early efforts come together, Orange told The Washington Post a network could be up and running by 2019.
“I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback,” Orange told the paper. “I see this as a way to bridge the digital divide.”
That term refers to the discrepancy between reliable Internet access and penetration seen between communities of varying economic status. Governments at many levels push technology agendas meant to help underserved communities use Internet and computer access to spark economic development.
Earlier this year, prominent District of Columbia businessman Ted Leonsis, chairman of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, tweeted out a “call to arms.” The city “must act together on wireless utility to connect all; NYC kicking our collective butt now.”
New York City has undertaken numerous connectivity projects, most recently LinkNYC, which is converting thousands of old phone booths to serve as public Wi-Fi hot spots, as well as provide access to city services and other functionality. LinkNYC is a for-profit venture of CityBridge, a consortium of four companies that signed a 12-year, $200 million contract with the city. The four CityBridge partners are chipmaker Qualcomm; CIVIQ Smartscapes, which is building the kiosks; and Intersection, which is a merger of the overseeing Control Group and outdoor advertising company Titan.
Kiva Allgood, Qualcomm’s VP of smart cities and industrial “Internet of Things,’ discussed how LinkNYC is indicative of efforts to address the digital divide.
“It’s really at the cornerstone of what we’re strategically trying to do with municipalities and cities,” Allgood said. “Reimagine city infrastructure … it starts to go from single purpose to multipurpose. We really think that technology is at the heart of that. The impetus from the city’s perspective was how do they solve the digital divide. We said, ‘hey, what assets does the city have?’ How do we make that more multipurpose?’”