For all of the geeks, web addicts and 'net users in Los Angeles who can't stand being tied to a land line, this is welcome news: Mayor Hahn has named a committee to study the feasibility of rigging the city for wireless.
No indication from the press release quoted at LAObserved whether the solution could involve myriad hotspots like the one in Culver City or just gangs of multiplexed Wimax hubs pumping 30 miles of signal from giant towers atop Bunker Hill, Baldwin Hills and the Hollywood sign.
That's for the blue-ribbon panel to decide:
Chairing Mayor Hahn's advisory panel will be Morley A. Winograd, executive director of the Center for Telecom Management at USC's Marshall School of Business. The panel will also include: Todd Richmond, USC Annenberg Center for Communication; Russell M. Kaurloto, USC Information Services Division; Rajit Gadh, Wireless Internet for the Mobile Enterprise Consortium; Curt Hessler, 101 Communications; and Rich Grimes, Wireless Capital and Management Services....
Wi-Fi service is currently available at several City of Los Angeles facilites, including Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Braude Constituent Service Center in Van Nuys, which just became available this week. Wi-Fi service is currently being developed at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles and along 1st Street in Little Tokyo...
Whether this new wireless gambit is an election-season ploy or just the sound of the tumblers clicking into place in his impenetrable safe of a head with the promise that he'll someday let some leadership out, is anyone's guess.
In any case: Hooray. They're clearly chosen from some of the best institutions. Let's hope they don't dawdle and give the council something it can understand and get behind.
Posted by: mack_reed on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 08:42 PM
