A few months ago, my home state made the news for its work on an initiative to cover the state in wireless with a true border-to-border network. The RI-WINS initiative (Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks) officially flipped the switch on June 19th, and I had the honor of organizing and moderating a Providence Geeks Town Hall event where the RI-WINS folks explained the project and answered some questions about it. Some of the interesting tidbits:
- It will take 120 WiMAX base stations to cover Rhode Island.
- Initially, the network will not target end-users, but…
- …there is one RI community that is talking with RI-WINS about providing access to people who can’t afford broadband