The Belleville News Democrat reports that WIFI is expected to be in place in downtown Belleville in time for the Art on the Square which starts May 19th. This would be really cool and good for the city.
Free wireless Internet — or WiFi — could be a huge incentive for people to come live and work in downtown Belleville, Ortiz said.
"People will be able to work (on their computers) anywhere downtown," said Ortiz, who estimated that as many as 300 web surfers will be able to log onto the system at one time.
"Lawyers from St. Louis who have trials at the courthouse can get on the Internet," he said. "People sitting on park benches downtown will be able to access the Internet with their laptops."
It would cost $10,000 for the equipment and about $3,000 a month for the bandwith — or internet access time — needed to run the site, Ortiz said.
"We wanted to do it with no city money," Ortiz said. "Harry Norton, of Norcom 2000, has offered to donate the equipment and the bandwidth, which we’re very grateful to receive."
Julia
