Oklahoma City claims world's largest municipal WiFi mesh network, leaves public out

With just about every other US city shutting down any Muni-Fi project that managed to get off of the ground, we can't help but have mixed feelings about this one. Oklahoma City is boasting of having the world's largest municipal WiFi mesh network, but for whatever reason, it's being reserved exclusively for "public safety and other City operations." In other words, it's not there to provide wireless internet access to the general public -- yet, at least. The network itself covers 555 square miles with 95% service coverage in the city's core, took two years to construct and was funded with $5 million from "public safety capital sales tax and City capital improvement funds." Talk about a tease.

[Image courtesy of OKWebCenter]

[IndusCreed @ Jun 4th 2008 9:35AM]

they will shut it down...in 2 to years...trends take about that much time to reach OK.

[fistpittingnork @ Jun 4th 2008 1:27PM]

I'm not sure why this is ranked so low, it's true. Have any of you [-] voters ever been to our state fair? With all the mullets and Whitesnake t-shirts, you'd swear it's 1992 again.

[Matt @ Jun 5th 2008 5:29PM]

Go to any state fair in the country and you'll see the same type of crowd. It's not just Oklahoma.

[chrisaroz @ Jun 4th 2008 9:37AM]

As an Oklahoman, I always suspected something like this. There are routers with huge antennaes on the stop lights at most major intersections, but there's never been any sort of announcement about a service. Now that we know a service exists we'll need to start petitioning for access.

[Carmelo Cutuli @ Jun 4th 2008 9:40AM]

We will have to connect Starbuck's :-)
http://www.tecnalia.it/index.php/starbucks-card-rewards-puts-extra-value-in-your-wallet-new-and-existing-members-get-new-benefits-including-up-to-two-hours-of-complimentary-att-wi-fi-daily/
C

[Technex @ Jun 4th 2008 9:40AM]

I would be pretty pissed if all my money went to something I couldn't use :(. Hopefully they'll let the public use it later.

[Mile @ Jun 4th 2008 9:53AM]

Your tax dollars also go to provide phone service for the city workers, yet they're not going to give you a number or let you ride on their service plan.

[Craig @ Jun 4th 2008 9:55AM]

I bet they don't let you drive around their police cruisers or fire trucks, either. Bastards.

[Jaque-o @ Jun 4th 2008 10:36AM]

Ah well, just be glad you got one of those spare US F-16's..



What? You mean you didnt get that one either? Greedy basterds !

[IT-Accountant @ Jun 4th 2008 9:43AM]

I wonder how long it will be before someone on the inside sets up a blog listing the daily WEP codes (or other codes) needed to connect to this.

[Idlemind @ Jun 4th 2008 9:52AM]

This reminds me of those "cold war country" elections of old where there was only one candidate...

"Hey we have real elections...see?!?" {pointing to the ballot with one name on it]

[Zal @ Jun 4th 2008 9:53AM]

"The network itself covers 555 square miles with 95% service coverage in the city's core"

Wow, there's a spin statement that says nothing. How big is the city's core? 1 square mile? Maybe 2 square miles? So, outside of the city's core, what is the % of service coverage? Pretty low, I bet--so it's quite a stretch to say that the network covers 555 square miles. PR spin at its finest.

[Sean @ Jun 4th 2008 10:21AM]

Being a resident of OKC, I'm going to risk putting my foot in my mouth here.

I imagine the city "core" probably covers a good deal of Oklahoma County. As chrisaroz said, the routers are everywhere. OKC is supposed to be 621 square miles with 244 square miles of that "urbanized". I'd guess that the core would probably cover most of that urbanized section for this to be of any use to emergency and city personnel.

[Daniel @ Jun 4th 2008 2:33PM]

OKC is the largest city in the country in terms of size (not population). By referencing its "core", I believe they are just leaving out the various suburbs, which are sometimes included when referring to any city in general.

[Warbuff @ Jun 4th 2008 5:04PM]

NYC is the largest city in the country
OKC is the 30th

As a New Yorker i feel saddened that we dont have free wifi.

But since you guys have the opportunity and petition to have it opened to the public.

[Idlemind @ Jun 4th 2008 7:03PM]

As long as there are generous (or dumb) neighbors, I'll have free WiFi

[Jonah Bliss @ Jun 4th 2008 9:11PM]

@daniel oklahoma city is the 7th largest us city by area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_by_area

[Steven @ Jun 4th 2008 10:02AM]

555 square miles = 1437 square kilometers

B+

[Rancoras @ Jun 4th 2008 10:19AM]

The network is for public safety. Law enforcement moves quite a bit of data during their operations. Do you really want that compromised because of people saturating the network with streaming video, skype, etc? I know I don't. I say kudos to the city for keeping it reserved.

[Paragon Guy @ Jun 4th 2008 10:10AM]

95% coverage reliability is the standard when designing public safety voice and data networks. As for handing out WEP codes, if its like the Motorola systems we sell for this same purpose, you would also need the modem and chipset for access to the system.

Usually a 4.9Ghz system is set aside for Public Safety in this scenario, and then a 2.4, 5.4 or 5.7 Ghz system is set up for public access.

The business model for free public wifi access still does not work.

[rcappo @ Jun 4th 2008 10:11AM]

I wonder how much of the city is covered by unsecured open wifi routers? Around my town, most places are (or various techniques could make them open).

[mikey payload @ Jun 4th 2008 1:03PM]

I live in Oklahoma, I'd like to have free wifi access! Instead, I am forced to pay Cox Communications.

[Justin @ Jun 4th 2008 10:18PM]

This coming from the City that want's to bring you the worlds largest oil derrick as a tourist attraction, and build it larger than the Eiffel tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGiJ0JWaOm0

[Don @ Jun 4th 2008 11:43AM]

The last thing we need are cops speeding around the streets while surfing the net for porn. Hopefully someday they will put this network to good use and let the financiers i.e. public have access. Todays government is B.S. we need a change vote RON PAUL for President. Please visit his site to learn more about him. He is a great man.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com

[Paragon Guy @ Jun 4th 2008 1:16PM]

Police have had computer access to law enforcement networks in their cars for over 10 years. Typically Internet access is not available because the nature of these networks don't have enough speed and bandwidth to access the Internet at anything aster than dial-up speeds.

[Maisum @ Jun 4th 2008 12:51PM]

damn..that sucks

[DM @ Jun 4th 2008 3:48PM]

I've met with people from Oklahoma City who run this network and it's phenomenal what they've been able to achieve.

They're able to stream video and schematics right to a police cruiser or fire engine.

For once, public safety actually has a bit of technology that isn't 20+ years old, and they managed to do it pretty cheaply as well.

It also means that instead of tying up radio channels, they can make dispatch queries automatically and follow alerts from nearby jurisdictions. This tool isn't a waste of money, it makes people safer. And yes, they do restrict the web-surfing to make sure that it's not abused.

[Brian @ Jun 4th 2008 5:24PM]

Warbuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_by_area


OKC's not so bad. I've been all over the US and honestly there are no more mullets there than anywhere else.... people are incredibly friendly too....

[Christopher @ Jun 4th 2008 5:33PM]

Thanks for the clarification dude. I didnt say anything bad about the city. Hopefully ill go there someday since I like to travel

[Christopher @ Jun 4th 2008 5:35PM]

By the way Im warbuff

[skulldriveshaft @ Jun 4th 2008 8:32PM]

Was that a good deal?

If it's for law and emergency response, keep it that network locked up.

Since they already have the site layout done, upgrading with munifi network by adding more transmitters/bridges, should come at a much lower cost.

I guess the broadband providers would be pissed.

[thehumanyawn @ Jun 4th 2008 8:47PM]

Why didn't you guys mention anything about MetroFi's plans to shut down the Portland WiFi network?

[Dre @ Jun 4th 2008 8:55PM]

I live in the OKC myself. My theory is "DON'T HIDE IT, DIVIDE IT!!". No wonder where all my tax dollars for the state has been going. They need to gone 'head and let us cop that access. I'm on the northside of the City and we got mad access points out here!!

[dd @ Jun 4th 2008 10:11PM]

This is a bargain for $5M. (New York City's wireless public safety network cost $500M, albeit with a more secure, better technology and icluding 5 years 24/7 operating expenses.) Note this is for ALL city agencies including Public Safety that will save lives of citizens and for field workers (restaurant, business, building inspectors etc) who can reduce costs by up to 10%-20% because they can dynamically get work orders, upload information, and resolve problems without driving all those miles back to the main office. OKC will most likely recoup its costs from the network within a year or two. So before you complain, realize that this is a profound cost saver and this network will allow your tax dollars to be put to better use such as education and city improvement projects.(Or maybe, wishful thinking, the city will even reduce your taxes!??) The public access business model for Muni Wireless is clearly dead. However, the government-access model that justifies the network by pay for itself within just a few years is opening new doors all over the country..

[darkangelism @ Jun 5th 2008 12:23AM]

at least our taxes are going to something cool.

[Jay Kennard @ Jun 5th 2008 2:09AM]

Okay, I'm really not sure how large Oklahoma City's network might be, but I'm really sick of hearing about wifi projects that don't work. I remember being in Philadelphia, and while it was nice, it obviously failed.

Come to Saskatchewan Canada. Our largest centres all have Wifi projects. Saskatoon has free wifi in the downtown core, broadway (a nice area just off downtown), and our two main campuses. Regina has wifi downtown, Cathedral (like Broadway in Saskatoon) and on it's two campuses, North Battleford has downtown wifi, and so does Moose Jaw.

Works great! Oh yes...and we invented medicare :)

[Roofus @ Jun 5th 2008 3:01AM]

Um, it's a hell of a lot easier to build and maintain a network to support a few thousand city workers. But when you've got millions surfing youtube and torrenting the latest blockbuster, it tends to demand a bit more umph from the system. That's why pubilc muni wifis fail, they're too costly and don't turn a profit.

[Forerunner @ Jun 5th 2008 6:44PM]

My question is, how secure is this? Wifi has been completely torn apart. It's not secure at all anymore. I suppose they aren't transmitting anything confidential, whatever they are transmitting, they are going to have people sniffing it.

[syberghost @ Jun 6th 2008 4:57PM]

I'm just struck by the fact I can still see that hole in the skyline, even in pictures, and it still makes me sad.

I hope it's real friggin' hot where you are right now, McVeigh.