Rhode Island is set to become the first state with a comprehensive wireless network, starting with a pilot program slated to launch this week in Providence. The first antenna installed for the network will be at the top of Brown's Sciences Library, one of the highest points in the Ocean State.
Brown is a "partner in the infrastructure side of the house and the application side of the house," said Melissa Withers, communications director for the Business Innovation Factory, the non-profit behind the project.
Representatives from the University are on the advisory committee guiding the pilot program, and the University will be one of the first organizations to use the network during the pilot. In cooperation with the Rhode Island Department of Education and local K-8 schools, 12 students from Brown participating in the Rhode Island Teacher Education Renewal project will take advantage of the wireless broadband connection.
Though the current program is limited, it will allow the project's organizers to work out any problems that may appear before the final program is put in place.
Bob Panoff, a Massachusetts-based consultant, said he first came up with the idea of the statewide wireless network. He said Rhode Island's size makes the project possible.
"Rhode Island is a tiny little place and that has always been a competitive disadvantage," he said. But the statewide wireless network will turn the state's size into an advantage by making "integration and collaboration not only within organizations but between organizations" more "mobile and flexible," he said.
Panoff praised the University's support for the project, saying, "Brown obviously has been very generous and very supportive." He noted particularly the University's willingness to allow use of the educational band in the radio spectrum and the SciLi itself.
Use of the wireless network will probably not be free, Panoff said, though several business models are under consideration. He said the project seeks to market itself to a number of Rhode Island businesses and organizations.
The project is "targeting organizations because there are already networks that service the needs of consumers," he said. The network will be most advantageous to "organizations whose operating footprint is most consistent with the state's borders," Panoff said, citing as an example the state government, especially public safety agencies, which have operations in currently disconnected areas such as lakes and rivers.
Other potential benefits include improving communication and connectivity for educational institutions, the health care sector and mobile workers, according to a fact sheet from the BIF.
A second pilot program will be launched in two or three weeks in Newport, R.I., which will be used by the Rhode Island Port Security Project to provide Internet communications to first responders in Narragansett Bay.
Funding for the project has come "from a variety of sources," including private organizations and the state and federal governments, Panoff said. Though not for profit, the final network should be economically self-sustaining, he added.
The network will be built on a WiMAX transport core with WiFi technology at the consumer interface edge, allowing for construction of fewer base stations than a WiFi-only network would require but offering compatibility with most end-user devices, according to the BIF fact sheet.
Rhode Island, besides being the smallest state in the union, also provides an excellent testing ground for the network because of its heterogeneous composition, which offers urban, suburban and rural environments in a relatively small geographical area, according to the BIF fact sheet.
