Appearing in the Daily Hampshire Gazette
March 14, 2006

Amherst OKs wireless plan - UMass profs will seek grants to create
free Internet access

By MARY CAREY Staff Writer

AMHERST - Amherst's top board supports a bid by a pair of University
of Massachusetts' professors to bring free, grant-funded wireless
Internet service to the entire town.

Their goal: to study how regions can maintain communications,
following a disruption of some sort, including natural disasters.

Mark Corner and Brian Levine, professors in the UMass Computer
Sciences Department, are applying for funding for the project from the
National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA).

They approached the Select Board last week, saying they needed to
demonstrate in their applications that the community would support the
project.

Board members wanted to hear more details on the Department of
Defense's potential involvement and the benefits to the town. After a
session Monday night, the board voted 4-1 to support the project.

Kristopher Pacunas, the town's information technology director,
initially estimated the cost of enabling wireless Internet service in
a square mile of the downtown at $635,000. He has revised that figure
to $975,231, all of which would be paid for by the grants, if Corner
and Levine are able to secure them.

It would take a year to deploy and test the system, Pacunas said.

Anne Awad, chairwoman of the board, said she is enthusiastic about the
proposal. 'I think this is an incredible opportunity and we'd be
shortsighted and not future-oriented if we didn't take advantage of
it.'

Member Hwei Ling Greeney disagreed. Over 200 communities are wired for
Internet access, according to her research. 'Unfortunately, the jury
is still out in terms of the cost,' Greeney said.

She was the lone dissenter in the board's vote to approve the project.

Levine assured the Select Board that the defense group would not be
involved with wiring the town for Internet access.

'They are not interested in operating this network. They are
interested in the research we are doing,' Levine said. He added that
Corner already is using wireless technology in his research tracing
the movements of turtles near the Fort River.

The goal of Corner and Levine's research is to increase the
performance of a communication network under 'challenged'
circumstances, following a hurricane or earthquake, for instance.

Equipping the entire town for wireless Internet use would help close
the 'digital divide' between people who have Internet service and
those who don't, Levine said. He said it would position Amherst as a
'tech-forward town,' and possibly reduce traffic, because people could
telecommute and use their laptops while riding the bus instead of
driving to work.

Once the system is in place, people waiting for the bus could check
its whereabouts and how long it will take to arrive on their laptop
computers, much as passengers on some airlines can now track an
airplane's progress on the computer screens in front of their seats.

Pacunas outlined a series of benefits to the town including better
communications between public safety personnel and savings on cell
phone and other costs. He estimated the cost of maintaining the
wireless system once it is installed at $10,000 a year.

Perhaps even more significant to Amherst, Pacunas said, is that the
town would be collaborating with UMass in a way officials have
repeatedly said should be encouraged. 'What better way to increase
communications than by partnering on a communications system?' he
asked.