Houston Turns Around IT White Elephant Into Free WiFi For City's Poor

Houston, Texas (AHN) - Instead of allowing a failed project that aimed to bridge the digital divide between the city's connected and unconnected residents, Houston will use part of the $5 million penalty imposed on the defaulting contractor to provide free WiFi access to the city's poor.

According to Houston Mayor Bill White, the city will spend $3.5 million of the penalty to construct 10 free network bubbles at known low-income areas of Houston.

The first bubble was launched Monday at Gulfton, a densely populated area located in the city's southwest zone. Construction period is estimated at two years.

Houston set up a group that would identify future locations of the nine other bubbles, which the city aims to interconnect in the future to enable the entire Houston to have free WiFi access for all poor city residents.

According to Nicole Robinson, director of Houston's Digital Inclusion Project, the upload and download speed on the soon-to-be-built free WiFi service would be around 3 megabits per second. If residents were to be billed for a similar DSL service, it would cost them $29 monthly.

Leading technology firms like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Verizon Wireless and Tropos Network donated equipment for the Gulfton network. Every bubble will have 15 public access points located at schools, city facilities and community organizations.

On August 2007 Houston slapped Earthlink, its project partner, a $5 million penalty for failing to meet deadline. The floundering IT firm laid off 900 workers or almost half of its payroll as a result of a company restructuring program.