Infrastructure Needs
At each era in history, an infrastructure innovation has driven economic growth. The transportation of goods and information has, and continues to be, essential to business and economic development.
Throughout history, access to ports, riverways, the high seas, railroads, highways, airports were key drivers of growth. Today, highspeed access to the Internet takes its place along side these traditional types of infrastructure as a critical ingredient to economic development and the ability to compete as a business or a region.
When people first called the Internet “the information superhighway,” it was more than a buzz word. It was an accurate description of the emerging role connectivity plays in conducting business and transporting commerce in the 21st century. Widely available access isn’t a social nicety – it is an essential for any business or region to compete today and in the years ahead.
Broadband Wireless
Broadband wireless access to the Internet is the latest infrastructure innovation, offering businesses and communities the ability to connect anywhere, any time. Wireless access is a key element in today and tomorrow’s business and community infrastructure. Its presence can drive economic development and regional education, provide a jump-start to small businesses, and support the creative economy.
In addition, wireless access provides us with unbounded mobility. This is a key underlying concept for business competition today and it describes a way of working that lets us conduct business, connect with each other, and manage our businesses and lives from virtually anywhere.
About Unwired Village
The Unwired Village Orleans Project is the first step in developing and testing a regional Unwired Village solution. The project will provide public broadband wireless access to the Internet from public areas across Orleans. Orleans is the regional hub of the semi-rural Outer Cape and one of the regionally designated commercial centers. For many reasons, it is an ideal place to develop, test, and adjust the sustainable model in preparation for a regional rollout.
The project will be designed using a “franchise” model that can be easily and economically duplicated and will take advantage of emerging consumer-priced technology and applications of powerful Open Source code base solutions.
The project will:
- Deploy wireless technology providing access within the core business areas of the town.
- Develop a self-sustaining business model that may be easily replicated by other local organizations.
- Establish best practices for the installation, management, and promotion of a community WiFi network
- Monitor and analyze use and usability of this type of network.