Business School Class Research Suggests Wi-fi Could Benefit Downtown
REPRINTED FROM THE TUSCLOOSA NEWS
By Robert DeWitt Staff Writer
Every city’s downtown aspires to be a hot spot.
Now, research by a group of University of Alabama students indicates Tuscaloosa’s downtown could benefit from actually becoming one.
Students from UA business Professor Dung Chau’s management information systems class studied the availability of wireless Internet in Tuscaloosa and what it would take to set up a wi-fi pilot program downtown.
‘A partnership providing casual use hotspots is a viable concept for cities that would like to portray themselves as technologically astute,’ said George Hamner, project director for the office of the associate dean of research at UA’s business school. ‘The technology is now practical.’
Hamner worked as a liaison between the university and the technology council of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama to facilitate studying wi-fi possibilities.
The hotspot would be for ‘casual users,’ people visiting the area to eat or shop, and would time out users after a couple of hours so it wouldn’t compete with commercial Internet service providers for business customers.
Many cities around the country have implemented wi-fi hotspots, often in their downtowns, the idea being that someone could access the Internet with a laptop or handheld device while outdoors taking a break in the park, eating lunch or shopping. Someone awaiting an important e-mail could take a laptop to lunch at a hotspot without fear of missing communications.
‘Most people who want to connect to the Internet for business purposes have already done so,’ Taylor said. ‘It really doesn’t serve a business purpose. It serves more of a quality-of-life purpose.’
Students found that installing a series of repeaters about 150 feet apart surrounding a city block that are linked to a server with a commercial Internet provider could turn a particular area into a viable hotspot.
‘A lot of cities have already done this, bigger cities like Philadelphia,’ said Doug Taylor, director of information technology for the city of Tuscaloosa.
The students found that a city block could be turned into a hotspot for about $3,000 in equipment, with students programming the server, the city providing labor and equipment to install the repeaters and an Internet service provider donating bandwidth, Hamner said.
‘It’s been pretty successful as a tool to attract people to the downtown area and would represent Tuscaloosa as forward-thinking,’ Hamner said.
Two areas are being considered for downtown hotspot pilots. One comprises the Temerson Square area and the block between 22nd and 23rd avenues on the north side of University Boulevard. The other is the new federal park under development south of City Hall.
‘Something like this needs to be carefully considered to see if there is a need and if there is, tried out on a trial basis,’ Taylor said. ‘And then you have to see how well it’s accepted or used.’
If the city becomes a partner in the effort, with students programming the server and a commercial ISP donating the bandwidth, the chamber could probably put together grant money to provide the equipment, Hamner said. There is even a solar-powered repeater that could eliminate the need for electricity to run the equipment, he said.
Hamner believes the idea would work well in the downtown restaurant district, along Tuscaloosa’s Riverwalk and in the federal park. The city could even broaden it to other parks via its fiber optic network, Hamner said.
The Quad at UA is already a hotspot, with a transmitter at the base of Denny Chimes. About 60 areas on campus have wireless Internet access, although only registered users can access UA’s network.
The city had already been considering turning the federal park into a hotspot that would serve not only the public but that could be used by city vehicles. The city has more than 100 mobile computers in police cars and more are being added to fire and rescue vehicles and other city vehicles.