Buoyed by support it has received from several technology companies here, the city of Spokane hopes to develop a citywide broadband wireless-communications infrastructure that it believes would enhance public safety and boost economic development.


The infrastructure would provide a transmission grid for the fast-emerging technology known as wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, which uses unlicensed radio spectrum to create a high-speed computer network.


In smaller applications, the technology creates whats known as a hot spot, with a typical range of several hundred feet within which people with properly equipped laptop computers and handheld devices can access the Internet without a wired connection or slower cell-phone transmissions. With the use of more powerful equipment, this application would turn the entire area within the citys boundaries into whats called a hot zone.


The city is seeking $1 million in federal funds to pay for the installation of wireless access equipment at certain points needed to create the communications grid. The request was part of a funding proposal for the 2005 federal fiscal year that two City Council members and the citys director of legislative affairs, Susan Ashe, hand-carried to the states congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., last month.


If that funding is approved, the city potentially could have the network equipment installed and the system ready for use by the end of next year, says Robin Toth, the citys economic-development project manager.


Its the speed. Its the capability, that makes the prospect exciting, she says.


The citywide network, expanding on a system currently being installed downtown, would have two domains, which are computer networks that can be programmed to allow or deny access to users. One domain would be secured and dedicated to law enforcement, fire, emergency-medical, and other such uses, and the other would be for general use. In seeking the federal funds, the city is focusing on the potential public-safety benefits of installing the network.


For mobile fire, police, and medical personnel, for example, the system would speed up tasks such as accessing needed data and getting reports approved from field locations, Toth says. The citys federal funding request says, This technology has immeasurable potential in hostage situations, missing children, chemical spills, fires, and traffic collisions, to name a few.


For the publicly accessible domain, the technology also would allow for streaming video at businesses and other organizations, along with real-time information updates to central databases from field locations, thus improving efficiency, the request says.


From a broad economic-development standpoint, Toth says, it gives us a little bit of an advantage over cities that are lagging in developing wireless capability for use by the public.


The citys push to establish a citywide hot zone has been inspired heavily, she says, by the efforts of several companies here that have been collaborating with the city to develop a Wi-Fi system in the citys core. Those companies include Wi-Fi equipment maker Vivato Inc., broadband access provider OneEighty Networks Inc., outdoor electronics cabinet maker Purcell Systems Inc., and rugged wireless computer maker Itronix Corp., she says. Though most of their help thus far has been donated, they could reap additional revenue if the citys wireless plan moves forward.


Michael Edwards, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, which has sought to assist the city and other parties in working together to create the downtown system, says, We see it as an economic-development tool for tourists, convention goers, and business travelers. We think its sort of the next step in a high-tech center for downtown.


He adds, I think its great. Its coming together great. I think well be one of the firstif not the firstlarge-scale, hot zone downtown in the nation.


The downtown network will provide broadband wireless access within a 100-block area bounded by Division and Cedar streets, Spokane Falls Boulevard, and the railroad viaduct.


Thus far, Toth says, powerful outdoor 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi switches made by Vivato have been installed atop City Hall and several other downtown buildings to create a perimeter for the hot zone. Also, three of 12 planned devices called wireless bridge routers, also made by Vivato and used to extend signal strength at street level and inside buildings, have been installed on light poles. Itronix handheld computers have been used to test the system, she says.


Although most of the equipment and testing have been donated, finishing the downtown network probably will cost in the mid six figures, Toth says.


Nevertheless, she says, the city hopes to have the installation completed by June 26-27, in time for Hoopfest, the annual street basketball tournament.


I think the city is committed to rolling this out, she says.


The citys interest in Wi-Fi technologyincluding possibly using it for parking enforcement downtown, security patrols, and other mobile work-force applicationsevolved largely from last years Hoopfest event, Toth says.


During that event, a temporary wireless network was set up downtown, using six of Vivatos outdoor switches, and Hoopfest used Itronix-made handheld computers to relay scores instantly from the basketball courts to a Web site.


Toth says the city decided to buy two switches that were mounted atop City Hall for that event. Now, she says, it basically is looking to create a downtown network similar to that former temporary onealthough much larger in sizeand to make it permanent.


She says Joel Hobson, the citys technical-services manager, has been the visionary spearheading the development of the overall network.


Chad Skidmore, president of OneEighty Networks, said last month in a news release about the downtown project that he believes it will become a catalyst for driving emerging technologies into the downtown business core.


While most of us think about downtown economic development in terms of the renovation of commercial real estate or condominiums, this is equally as valuable in the creation of new jobs and companies moving to downtown, he asserts.


What isnt clear yet is how much users of the downtownand, possibly later, citywideWi-Fi hot zone eventually will have to pay for access to it. For now, its being provided at no charge, but OneEighty Networks expects at some point to begin charging for use of its high-speed, fiber-optic network, to which the Wi-Fi system connects. It began installing free public hot spots connected to that network more than a year ago, and as of February 2003 there already were at least six in the downtown area, five of them installed by OneEighty, as well others at some outlying locations.


The Spokane Airport Board this week was to select a contractor to install and manage a Wi-Fi system at Spokane International Airport.


A typical laptop computer now can be retrofitted for Wi-Fi use with the purchase of a wireless network card costing less than $50. Most new laptops now come already Wi-Fi equipped.