Some 235 people filtered into a 6:30 p.m. community Wi-Fi meeting hosted by the City of Riverside and AT&T on Monday, May 12, 2008, at the Riverside Convention Center. Both Steve Reneker, Riverside's CIO, and Damon Wei, AT&T's municipal-wireless North America lead, were very pleased with the turnout.
"We would consider it a success if 20 people showed up, and I am flattered and thrilled to see this kind of turnout," Reneker said. "We're definitely putting ourselves on the map."
"This is really all about a network we are bringing to Riverside for you folks," Wei, who flew in from New Jersey, told the audience, which represented a broad cross-section of the community, young and old. "I'm so excited to see this many customers, this many folks, to see what we're doing in Riverside."
A colorful AT&T tower banner sits at the corner of Main and 3rd Street, across the street from the Convention Center and reads: "AT&T Metro Wi-Fi. Outside. Right where you're standing."
Wei began with a practical observation, drawing a gasp. "About 18 months ago, Intel announced it had produced its 100 millionth Wi-Fi-enabled computer chip. Any laptop you buy in the store today is capable of accessing this Wi-Fi network." He then handed out his own Internet tablet to show that community connectivity could come in many different forms.
He said that the first large area of the network is expected to be finished by the end of this month with a targeted completion by end of June. "You'll see a variety of different devices attached to your streetlights. There are well over 1,200 radios already installed." At the same time, he conceded: "The testing of that network is taking longer than we thought.... At AT&T, one of our coroprate mandates is to be the most reliable provider. Although I have frustrated the city to a certain extent, I will not bring a network live that is not reliable."
Wei has made a significant study of Wi-Fi technology. "My wife is rather tired of me driving around looking at light poles....forgive the strange nuances and behaviors I've acquired," he said to the audience.
Throughout the evening, he did a thorough job of setting expectations, elaborating for some time on the ways a signal may or may not work for a customer.
"Remember that the network is designed to work outdoors," he said "If you have a concrete house, it's sunlikely the signal will penetrate. If it's built with wire mesh, or you use wire mesh screens on your windows, or windows coated with anti-reflective coating....all of those things tend to block radio signal in some fashion. You will have a better chance to work indoors if you're closer to one of the nodes, your device is near a window or a door — especially if it's open — or you have an optional booster device."
While the image of sitting with a laptop in an open doorway seemed to amuse the crowd, one resident who lives in the center of the downtown pilot area and who can see AT&T's building from her home was flabergasted that she couldn't get a good signal yet in her home. "Who do I talk to?" she asked.
Free service in Riverside is 512K downstream and 256K upstream, and paid service will be "twice as fast," Wei said. City government workers will also use the network.
