Will the beach go WiFi?
Officials hear a pitch about making the barrier islands a test area for a public safety project using wireless technology.
By MARY BURRELL
| Article published on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 |
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MADEIRA BEACH – It sure does sound like the wave of the future. Proponents of wireless fidelity technology say it will lead to unimaginable services – both on a community and personal level.
Leaders of the beach communities heard about the potential of WiFi as it relates to public safety at the April 27 meeting of the Barrier Islands Governmental Council.
Since then, the partners of ProjectSafety have been in the process of carrying their message to the individual municipalities to garner political support, which they say is the first step in their quest to revolutionize public communications. The Pinellas Planning Council has prepared models to help cities study the proposal.
Basic wireless Internet service in itself is not new and is provided at many locations, such as the Seminole campus of St. Petersburg College, some public buildings, business districts and soon, communities.
On May 5, Dunedin became the first city in the state to contract for a citywide wireless network with Citi WiFi Networks, which will offer Internet service in homes for $24.95. According to Citi WiFi’s publicist, Cathy Shenevert, the company plans to expand to areas as it receives requests, and it has its sights set on downtown St. Petersburg, starting with the Vinoy Condominiums and Bayfront Center. It has purchased rights to the roof of the Bayfront Towers.
ProjectSafety will be debuting its own hot spot – a range of services – at BayWalk in another week and plans to expand into downtown St. Petersburg, too.
The problem with wireless technology is that it depends on a tower and power. In a hurricane, the tower can fall. Citi WiFi’s general counsel, Mark Bouldin, said when the power goes down, the wireless service goes down.
Two local residents have an idea for a better system, one that could tap into a variety of systems, to set up a wireless environment that would not be dependent on electricity. Software would manage the community system to ensure emergency personnel had first priority during times of high usage.
The partners of ProjectSafety, Larry Karisny and Mohan Pundari, are asking to use the beaches as a test area.
ProjectSafety Business and Technology Cluster is the not-for-profit part of the partners’ work, which is under the management of Engineering Technology of America at the Young-Rainey STAR Center. According to the director of the center, Paul Sacco, a federal grant for the public safety project is in the works.
Pundari said the system is being developed with a priority on public safety. It is based on “radios,” with the capability of plugging into alternative power sources. These products already are being made available on the market; Project Safety would not be involved in selling them.
“The secret sauce is this is going into automobiles for safety applications,” said Pundari, an engineer who has developed the concept from his work with the automotive industry.
He speaks about a wireless world as having unlimited potential – providing services such as alerting a driver to oncoming traffic at an intersection. But it takes enough hot spots, each with a limited range of coverage, to blanket an area. Down the road, fiber lines could be run the length of Gulf Boulevard, which would vastly increase the capacity of the system, Pundari said.
But he said the first step is to tap into municipalities and get political support. Public buildings could be used to introduce wireless to the community. After that, the chambers of commerce could help encourage businesses to set up hot spots. He then envisions condominium associations as ideal investors.
“It will take years to get the cooperation of everybody,” he said. “It starts by taking these baby steps.”
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Article published on Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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