According to the Times-Standard, the little city of Rio Dell will be providing extensive wireless connectivity in multiple locations. While the article implies that it’s a city wide network, it’s really multipe hot spots. Since the city is so small, depending on the reach of each hot spot it could act almost like a mesh.
It’s also interesting that the ‘redundancy’ the article talks about is not really true redundancy in that the city has two seperate services: DSL from AT&T and a backhaul feed for the wireless service from 101 Netlink. They provide service via microwave from their location on top of Pratt Mountain. So according to Sean McLaughlin of Access Humboldt “Redundancy is achieved simply by logging on to the wi-fi service if your fiber goes down.” Or vice versa I presume. True peering betweeen services will come at some later date.
Still, this another of the many small triumphs in bringing powerful, robust communication services to the region. In 5-7Â years, though, these victories will seem like ancient history as broadband and redundant connections wherever weeare will be a part of the background fabric of our every day lives. It will be an assumed feature, not something we will have to work for, write articles about, or herald when it happens.