SALISBURY -- Following the success of other communities, such as Berlin, the city of Salisbury is considering adding free Wi-Fi to its downtown.
Officials hope that the Internet accessibility will serve as an economic driver and encourage visitors into the downtown area. To manage the new service and other technology needs, the city will also contemplate adding a new network administrator to its Information Technologies (IT) department.
IT Director Bill Garrett briefed the City Council this week on what he believes free Wi-Fi downtown could do for Salisbury.
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20 comments:
"With a first year cost of $20,745, the Wi-Fi system would provide coverage from the Government Office building south to where it would mingle with the public library’s Wi-Fi. There would be a recurring annual cost of $4,800 and a five-year licensing fee of $3,396."
This is utter crap, gotta love having other peoples money to pay for expensive toys. This could be done for well under $5000 using off the shelf Ubiquity networks gear, and that would cover pretty much all of downtown for that price, no yearly licensing either.
Get Comcast or Verizon to sponsor the back haul ($4800 savings),they would handle the hardware and firewalls.
IF this takes off and saturates that system THEN look into upgrading the equipment.
So much waste, Bill knows about this cheaper technology, is he covering his backside while sticking it to us taxpayers?
Btw, why is the dispatch covering this and not our local media?
Also how much did Berlin pay to have Wifi cover their downtown?
I don't know why the city doesn't get it - no one is going to go downtown. What does it take, a sledge hammer to their head to make them understand - there is no reason to go downtown, except maybe to get a parking fine because you didn't feed the meter. No thanks.
No Salisbury stay BEHIND the times DON'T be like Berlin???
I dont think Berlin has the problems with bums and stuff like Salisbury does.That pansy do nothing mayor and city council are in a dream world if they really think they are going to makr downtown vibriant again. The council and homosexual mayor are not business friendly first off. The only things really coming to Salisbury are chain restuarants meaning more part time low paying jobs. Salisbury has a long way to go before the downtown gets better.I wonder how much this free internet is going to cost the tax payer.
need to repave the streets in salisbury first. they are getting bad....
Also, good luck finding anyone worth a hill of beans to help run the network for $19K/year.
"The desire to make Wi-Fi available in downtown Berlin has been a council goal for years. The cost was always too high to justify the project, however. But this spring Virginia-based firm NGX Grid offered to install Wi-Fi downtown for under $3,000, a fraction of what previous estimates from other providers had offered, with usual prices in the $50,000 ballpark."
I guess Bill should have done more "Investigating".
Y'all do realize that downtown Salisbury is significantly bigger than downtown Berlin right?
Second, I'd rather something positive be done rather than nothing at all.
There is free wifi downtown already - Market Street Inn. Pretty much the only place I visit in downtown Salisbury and sadly a lot less often than I did in the past. Parking, trash, smelly river, and bums.....
Everyone understands that Salisbury's downtown is bigger than Berlins, but is it $17,000 bigger than Berlin's?
As I mentioned before this project could be done for way less, I am guessing this will be bid out, maybe the same company that did Berlin will bid on this as well.
With most phones having 4G/LTE these days the only time I look for wi-fi is when I have something big to download and do not want to go over my data caps. Heck, most new smartphones have wi-fi sharing built into them, so that cuts down on the need to find a hotspot while using my laptop.
I would start this small and scale it up as needed, most wireless equipment allows for scalability.
Here is an idea, turn the old firehouse into a coffee lounge with free wi-fi, stick a high powered omni antenna on the roof there and on top of the GOB building, run them with solar power with a point to point link.
Shawn,
you're correct. it will go out for bids and somehow, Gillis will win the contract!
HOW many more coffee houses do we need???
Also HOW many more restaurants do we need? We counted the. There are some 121 restaurants between the overhead bridge and past the college. Haven't counted the ones from there to Delmar.
Now we hear Cracker Barrel is thinking about setting up shop on north 13. With them here there goes the money from the LOCAL restaurants.
What is our government thinking?
Oh it looks good to have a "new" restaurant here. Look closer most of the money goes to a head office to purchase a vacation home or a bmw for the head people there. If you eat local and take care of local the little people can afford new clothing and maybe a dance class for their local children.
New buffet opened up north serving same menu as china town buffet. WHY. I guess the building was newer so our government wanted a new building??
This area, Salisbury, Ocean Pines, and West OC have more restaurants and retail than any where else. WHY
Salisbury will soon be just another chain city. You did it to yourself.
EAT LOCAL SHOP LOCAL.
No, we need skateboard parks first. Just ask Ocean City!
What does the daily rag have to say about our mare NOT being chosen to be brown's running mate? Boy, they sure fell for that line of bull!
If it's free internet, why would it cost anything? Hey, I went to school. One thin dime & it's NOT free!
3:11, free to users, not to the city. Of course, if the users are city taxpayers, it's not free to them.
It would be cheaper for me to stay home and buy my own internet than to pay the downtown parking fees and sit out in the weather just to be online! Besides, most of us have smartphones now that REQUIRE us to pay for internet on the go. I only need mine to be able to swipe credit cards for customer purchases, not to surf the web!
Yeah FREE WyFi Free porn. People park around the library to use the free WyFi now, some who don't live in salisbury, others who do, but they aren't buying anything or going into see their lawyer, attend court or see their bail bondsman? Why do you need it. Get rid of paid parking, attract businesses with incentives and the maybe people will return.
Anonymous said...
Y'all do realize that downtown Salisbury is significantly bigger than downtown Berlin right?
Second, I'd rather something positive be done rather than nothing at all.
June 7, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Have you lost your mind. Downtown is only one block in Salisbury full of empty buildings. Berlin is numerous blocks full of occupied buildings, restaurants, storefronts and a hotel.
"Second, I'd rather something positive be done rather than nothing at all.
June 7, 2013 at 1:14 PM"
That's the problem. You people settle for these half witted ideas that don't amount to a hill of beans (except to waste more money) instead of thinking and acting on a grand- outside the box- scale that will really get the ball rolling downtown.
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