WiFi for the Villages
Yes, Dick Belles chair of the AAC is in contact for talks with AT&T. I heard they are laying optical cable some where around here.
The Villages IT department has been looking into this for years, but nothing has ever happened from them.
I am not an expert but this subject has been brought up some time back suggesting the use of "mesh technology" developed for Army tanks. The town of Richardson TX is using a south Dallas company to provide WiFi service for the entire town. They will be getting free access for every one around 760 Kb/s band width and paid connections at 10 and 20 Mb/s. bandwidth. One is lucky to get 1.5 Mb/s with Comcast here when their connection loads up at night.
Richardson is exactly the same size as the Villages, 21 Sq. Miles. Richardson is a high tech town north of Dallas and home to a lot of high tech industry. The cost to the town is around $ 2M or about 6 houses for us.
There are a lot of other systems out there, newer and faster, but I expect we will get stuck with the highest bidder and higher costs.
WiFi should be a public utility at the lowest cost, but I wouldn't hold my breath for lowest cost with AT&T. I hope I am wrong.
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