Wireless Silicon Valley project gains some steam

The massive Wireless Silicon Valley project that aims to cover 1,000 square miles in California's Silicon Valley with WiFi, is finally gaining a bit of steam after several delays. San Carlos' city council approved encroachment permits required for a trial of the network in downtown San Carlos.

In February, Covad agreed to test a network in San Carlos. Covad has been looking at ways to extend its fixed-line broadband services into hard-to-reach areas. Those involved with the Wireless Silicon Valley project hope that this trial deployment will spur nearby cities to become involved.

"The cities are very interested, but they're saying, ‘Look, we're not going to sign up for these services unless we've seen them run, and in our environment-we don't want to go down to Tempe or over to Philadelphia-we want to see it running here, so we can bring in our police cars, our public works people, and try it out and have confidence that we're going to get the quality of service that we need," Seth Fearey, project manager for Wireless Silicon Valley, told Wi-Fi Planet.

For more:
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