Slow posting (Update)

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I was having trouble logging on here from Starbucks. Now I am sitting outside the Shilin MRT station and not very comfortable. I feel like I am in Mission Impossible getting my message and the computer is about to explode. All of the MRT stations in Taipei are wireless as are many other places in the city. The goal of Taipei's leaders is to make this city the first completely wireless city in the world. I guess that is the goal of many other cities--Philadelphia, San Fransisco, Seattle...but this is the first city where I have seen evidence of it actually happening. I suppose other Asian cities are moving quickly on this front as well. It helps when corporations don't control government policy.

(Update) As if respond to what I said above, The Anniston Star resports, Philadelphia OKs wireless Internet project:

EarthLink will start building the network in June over a 15-square-mile test area that would cover parts of North and South Philadelphia. The test should take three to four months, said Clifton Roscoe, director of major projects for EarthLink.



Councilman Brian O'Neill said EarthLink has the choice to get out of the deal if the company doesn't like the results of the trial. But he added that he believes EarthLink will succeed.

The Internet service provider's first target would be the city's quarter-million dial-up customers plus existing broadband subscribers who want to pay lower prices, O'Neill said.

Community-based organizations will reach out to low-income households to get them interested.

Atlanta-based EarthLink will invest $22 million over a decade to provide Wi-Fi in the city. Prices are expected to be about $20 a month, or $9.95 for low-income households. EarthLink has agreed to lease capacity to rival Internet service providers.

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About 300 communities across the country are developing or have deployed Wi-Fi plans. Chicago and San Francisco also are planning big public Wi-Fi projects.

O'Neill said having citywide Wi-Fi will attract business and leisure travelers to Philadelphia.

"This puts us at the top of the list," he said.