Wireless Internet a Staple of Metro North Cities
Published Apr 17, 2008
Imagine sitting with Rover in Arvada’s dog park and using your laptop to check e-mail. Or, while enjoying Broomfield’s impressive collection of public art, using your Blackberry to search for information about a sculptor. Such remote wireless Internet access is coming soon to 10 Colorado communities, including the Metro North cities of Arvada, Broomfield, Northglenn and Thornton, thanks to a coalition called Colorado Wireless Communities.
Launched in 2006, CWC is working toward “an affordable, wireless, regional, broadband network,” explains CWC President Clark Johnson, Arvada’s assistant city manager. “The network will be literally everywhere outside, covering 137 square miles.”
In August 2007, CWC signed a letter of intent with Boulder-based C-Com Affinity Telecom to build, own and operate the vast wireless system. Johnson anticipates the system will be operational by the end of 2009.
Other Metro North communities boast Wi-Fi hot spots, thanks to government, education and private-business initiatives. “What we’ve been doing for a long time is encouraging our developers as they’re building their business parks or commercial centers to go ahead and include Wi-Fi in their developments,” says Susan Grafton, economic development manager in Westminster.
The strategy is working in her city, she says. “It’s part of the amenity package developers are able to promote as part of their project.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
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