Free WiFi Planned for National Mall

[Robert E. Seastrom]

Alex Fraser <beatnic at comcast.net> writes:

>     Not knowing for sure, but I think a considerable portion of the
> budget would go for purchasing bandwidth into the internet.  Would
> they use a T1 for every hotspot?  What is the government rate for a T1
> per month?  Street price in the burbs hovers around  ~$500, I would
> think it higher in DC proper. Internet access is a recurring cost and
> dwarfs the cost of the equipment which is really low.

Probably consumer DSL like most other hot spots.  $2000 a year for the
really good stuff, less for the more mediocre stuff that most hotspots
run.  I figured cost of b/w into my numbers.

>     And while we are talking about hotspots I will put a plug in for
> the Hinternet.
> 
> Hinternet?  This is what the ARRL HSMM (High Speed Multi Media)
> working group is calling the amateur implementation of 802.11 wifi
> networking.  It would be possible and legal to set up a wifi hotspot
> for ham use under part 97 rules.  The working group suggests channels
> 2-6 in order to stay within our band. Issues of content, IDing and
> security have been gone over, discussed, considered, rediscussed and
> reconsidered for over a year.  We are good to go.

Did the IDing part involve the idea I floated a while back about a
packed ASCII format for putting one's callsign in the right hand side
of a reserved OUI for the ethernet?

                                        ---Rob