DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE JUN 17, 2006 Our Unwired World - More and more, Valley Internet users get the connection - without fees or wires BY KRISTIN PALPINI AND RACHAEL HANLEY, STAFF WRITER Five years ago, roaming the Valley to find a public wireless Internet connection was like trying to find a parking space in downtown Northampton on a sunny weekend. Not just for metropolitan hubs any more, free public wireless Internet service areas - or 'Wi-Fi hotspots' - began springing up in Valley cafes as savvy eatery owners grabbed a way to please caffeinated customers, and perhaps lure business from other coffee outposts. Now, Wi-Fi is branching out beyond cafes and into the area's hotels, ice cream parlors and homes. And soon, it's expected to be available throughout downtown Amherst. According to a Google Web search, there are about 20 free and pay public Wi-Fi hotspots across Hampshire and Franklin counties, with the number rising. Many of the hotspots have popped up within the last three years and can be found in Northampton, Amherst, Easthampton, Hadley and South Deerfield. 'Wi-Fi is the direction people are going in. You've got to just let it ride,' said Peter Simpson, owner of the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton, one of the hottest hotspots in the area. 'I can imagine that one day we'll all look back at this period and it will all seem so prehistoric,' he added. 'Everyone is wireless.' On Monday afternoon, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins will unveil plans to provide free Wi-Fi service to anyone to boots up a laptop in Main Street's Pulaski Park. And this week, the state Legislature approved an economic stimulus package that includes money to expand Wi-Fi coverage in communities throughout Massachusetts. One goal: 'wireless downtowns.' Wireless urge grows While local hotspots are on the rise, entire municipalities are also going wire-free. Corpus Christi, Texas; Seattle, Wash.; and California's Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara are just some of America's cities that offer a blanket of uninterrupted wireless Internet service. Other cities, including Amherst, Boston, Philadelphia, Penn. and Chicago, Ill., are taking steps to follow suit. In about two months, downtown Amherst will be fitted with Wi-Fi equipment that will provide everyone within range of its signal free Internet access. The project is being funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and orchestrated by the University of Massachusetts. 'It's about freedom and convenience,' said Donald St. John, an Amherst freelance technology and business writer, explaining the Wi-Fi appeal. 'It's about being able to take your laptop and go anywhere and still be linked in.' Wi-Fi 'fits into our modern lives, our 2.2 kids and our hard-working lifestyle,' he added. Hotspots here and now Wi-Fi is a localized area Internet network that uses high-frequency radio signals to transmit and receive data over distances of a few hundred feet without a hardwire connection. Wi-Fi is short for 'wireless fidelity', on the analogy of hi-fi for 'high fidelity' audio, and is now used as a generic term for almost all wireless communications. The most popular place to find Wi-Fi is in the home. Many people use it inside their residences as a way to cut down on the clutter of computer wires or just to give them the freedom to surf the net while sitting on a lawn chair in their backyards. Outside the home, hotspots can be found in places such as the Woodstar Cafe in Northampton, the cafe in the Blue Moon Grocery in Easthampton, the Lord Jeffery Inn in Amherst, as well as the public libraries in these and other communities - including the small library in Goshen. People who rely on hotspots usually find them by running an Internet search for hotspot sites, by word of mouth, or by using Wi-Fi 'detectors.' Detectors are small digital boxes that can fit on a keychain. They locate Wi-Fi signals and measure their strength. There is also the method that Don Blair of Northampton, 33, uses: 'I just open up my laptop (at a cafe) and hope for the best.' Blair is a University of Massachusetts student studying for his doctorate in physics. He is among the many who now depend on free public hotspots for their Internet hook-ups. As a 'poor student' with no extra cash, Blair said he can't afford to fit his home with a $40-per-month Wi-Fi service, but he can spring for a cup of coffee at a cafe and tap into the eatery's free access. 'I use Wi-Fi daily,' Blair said. 'I'm an example of the Internet economy.' Spotted on a recent Wednesday at the cafe, Blair and his Northampton pal Joel Minsky, 30, were enjoying an early lunch while catching up on work. The cafe was bustling with couples and groups of people talking over caffeinated beverages and light sandwiches. Conversations blended like creamer in coffee, producing a warm mix of laughter and friendly discourse. Peppered throughout the crowd were six other people who sat alone, quietly typing away at their laptops. Outside in a light misting rain, a young woman sat with her laptop at one of the cafe's umbrella-protected patio tables. She was writing a lengthy email to her boyfriend. 'I wouldn't come here if they didn't have' Wi-Fi, Minsky said between bites of a bagel sandwich. 'All coffee shops kind of have to have Wi-Fi now or else people would just go to one that had it.' It's debatable among business owners whether Wi-Fi attracts customers. Most owners who offer Wi-Fi said they do so to please their customers. Some, though, like Starbucks, charge for the service. 'Wi-Fi is a perk for customers,' said Blue Moon grocery store co-owner Deborah Robinson in Easthampton. 'It's a way to say thank you and appreciate the customers who support us.' Municipal wireless ahead Though Wi-Fi hotspots are growing steadily, they may eventually be eclipsed by municipal wireless. The biggest obstacle facing community wireless is the initial cost of the network equipment, as well as some pending legislation. Downtown Amherst will soon be fitted with Wi-Fi equipment paid for by the federal government, UMass and the town. UMass Computer Sciences professors Brian Levine and Mark Corner obtained a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and convinced the town of a Wi-Fi system's benefits. Through the pilot program, the professors expect to study how regions can maintain communications, following a disruption of some sort, including natural disasters. The dollar amount is less than what the professors initially sought. The university had wanted to blanket the entire town with Wi-Fi access, but the equipment and set-up would have required a $1 million grant. Amherst's project is unique. For most municipalities to go wireless, there has to be interest from a large company willing to furnish the Wi-Fi equipment for free. The investing company then charges Internet subscribers a monthly fee to recoup its costs. Due to the relatively small size of many communities in Hampshire and Franklin counties, it is difficult to find a business interested in making the investment. Still, local telecommunications professionals predict municipal Wi-Fi is close at hand as equipment prices continue to drop. For it to prosper, communities must also be willing to direct investment into wireless as a public service - and not be struggling to afford teacher salaries. 'I think this is something feasible within the next two or three years,' said Jeff Mackler owner of Rubberneck.net, a computer networking and Web site design business in Northampton. 'I think the technology is really becoming affordable and the interest in having (municipal Wi-Fi) is inevitable.' For municipal Wi-Fi to succeed, local governments will have to convince legislators and trump the power of big business. Although Massachusetts has no laws that prohibit municipalities from going wireless, other states are grappling with restrictions. In Pennsylvania a three-year Wi-Fi battle has been waged in that state's legislature. In 2004, the state passed Act 183, which contains provisions that prevent all Pennsylvania communities, except Philadelphia, from offering Wi-Fi service. Pennsylvania's law offers local telephone companies the right of first refusal before any community can offer municipal Wi-Fi. As the popularity of wireless communication grows, many in the Valley predict Wi-Fi will engulf the area's larger communities in a matter of years. 'Eventually everywhere will be wireless,' said James D. Ingram, owner of Mt. Tom's Homemade Ice Cream in Easthampton, an old-fashioned sundae and candy shop that offers a free Wi-Fi connection to patrons. 'We all depend on the Internet, and that creates a demand for access all around. And when there's a demand, someone will make money from it.'