Free wireless in Brighton
Provided by Frontier. Wonder if there is a download cap?
Frontier announced an extension of its high-speed wireless internet network coverage into the Brighton area Thursday. The extension was made possible due to a $200,000 Empire State Development grant. It is the first state, town and corporate wireless partnership in the area. Frontier invested $600,000 in the expansion.
Town officials designated Buckland Park and Brighton Town Hall as wireless-free zones. The service provides the public with free and unlimited use of the network.
There is a fee for other hotspots.
WROC Channel 8 has video with maps of coverage.
I couldn’t find anything about it on the town website. Maybe they will post more information about it.
Which town is next?
The wireless service in Brighton has actually decreased in planned coverage. The original plan was to extend service outwards from 12 Corners down Monroe and Elmwood Avenues. The 12 Corners business district was to be within the “free access” loop, with the extended spokes being part of the $30 a month access area ($10 if you are a Frontier DSL customer).
The plan has been dramatically reduced in scope. The antennas installed further down Elmwood have been removed, and one of the antennas on the traffic light pole at Elmwood & Winton has been repositioned to direct more fee-based access towards the middle and high school. The 12 Corners district is now entirely fee-based access - only the town hall and library zone and Buckland Park (entirely pointless) zones are now free of charge.
So now the wi-fi from Frontier network for Brighton leaves only expensive and limited access hotspots in a very small portion of the town. If Sandra was smart, she’d not give it much prominence, because it represents an end run by the County GOP and Frontier around Brighton’s own consideration of a wi-fi network, and after it actually was completed, only covers a miniscule portion of the town, spreading signal across commercial locations and empty sports fields. I’m sure the latte drinkers and folks kicking around a ball at Buckland Park will find it useful (?).
That hardly addresses the issue that communities have raised about expensive broadband access to residences. The information have-nots are not going to find a solution with a Frontier wi-fi network that covers the Clinton-Westfall corridor, the Monroe Avenue commercial district between the Pittsford town line and the city boundary, and the 12 Corners business district.
Brighton should accelerate considering of its own wi-fi network that is directed at serving residential areas of the town, perhaps starting with the relatively high-density, and lower income rental properties clustered in different sections of the town. A $30 monthly access fee is the equivalent of what Frontier charges on a promotional plan for full speed DSL service, so the price should near half that rate.
LIVE! From Brighton Town Hall.
Whoops, no WiFi.
Where you at the meeting tonight?
Yes, I was watching at home on the thinkin’ box and it just didn’t do it justice, so I decided to swing by to get the full flavor of the event.