Berlin looks at La Plata project while considering free Internet plan
(June 3, 2011) The town of Berlin has considered public Internet projects, but the Southern Maryland town of La Plata has successfully provided free wireless to its downtown residents, and plans to expand that signal.
Berlin Town Administrator Tony Carson said his town looked into the possibility of a free wireless signal in December, hoping in part for some government grants.
“We looked and it wasn’t viable at the time,” Carson said. “It would have extended from the corner of PNC Bank across the street from Town Hall, down Main Street and off the side streets. It would have encompassed the entire downtown Berlin area. It was too costprohibitive at the time, but we’re always looking for grants we can pursue that could save residents some money.”
Berlin Councilwoman Lisa Hall said town residents are irked by wireless Internet bills that “are sometimes $100 per month.”
“Some people I know actually share the costs of the same signal with their neighbor to save money every month,” Hall said.
The town of La Plata in Charles County successfully coordinated a free Internet signal in its small downtown area to stimulate economic development and tourism, but “not to replace people’s Internet service connections,” according to La Plata Town Manager Daniel Mears.
To compare each town’s logistics for a downtown wireless signal, Berlin is more compact with approximately 4,485 residents in 2.9 square miles of town limits, and La Plata has approximately 8,753 residents in approximately 6.9 square miles of town limits, according to the 2010 Census.
After failing to win a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to set up a free public signal, the town of La Plata added the cost for a network to its 2011 budget in partnership with a local Charles County library, according to Mears.
“The town funds capital costs to outlay wireless Internet nodes, and the library provides tech services to maintain and operate the network,” Mears said. “It’s a little over $9,000 per year for the data and T1 line costs going out for the bandwidth, which is our major expense. We have budgeted $7,500 set aside for any maintenance, but we’re not expecting to need it since we just built the network, so we’ll be using that for some signal expansion.”
One partnership operating between Worcester County and Internet provider Bloosurf might soon offer low-cost wireless Internet for the rural areas of the county. The company received a $3.2 million grant from the Department of Agriculture in October and its Chief Operating Officer Naimat Mughal expected “we should be launching our network around July or August.”
Mughal said Bloosurf began partnering with Worcester County to lease water tanks to deploy antennas and get other logistical support shortly after a previous network development partnership with Lower Shore Broadband Cooperative failed when the company went bankrupt.
“We are going to be doing a combination of fixed wireless Internet for computers in a home, offering people wireless Internet plug-in cards so they can access the Bloosurf network, and offering voice over Internet for landline phones,” Mughal said. “In this area the phone service and Internet service can be really expensive. Our goal is to keep the cost low for communications in the Lower Shore counties.”
Ocean City has many options for people to access free wireless Internet provided by businesses, such as hotels that broadcast a signal, which might not require a login password. There is also a free wireless hotspot downtown at Somerset Street Plaza.
