St. Louis gets its Wi-Fi network, but scaled down
It's a sign of the times: the city's Wi-Fi network has been turned on, but nowhere near what it was initially billed to be.
The mesh network covers a single square mile of St. Louis' downtown from North Tucker Boulevard to the Mississippi River from west to east, and Carr Street to Highway 40 from north to south.
Maintained by AT&T, both free and paid access are available. The company had originally promised last year to cover the entire city with wireless access, however now it appears this small area of Wi-Fi access is the best the city will get.
Like other Wi-Fi projects across the country, several setbacks eventually killed the program. The city and the telecommunications company couldn't find a way to keep the transmitters powered in a cost effective manner.
AT&T has since figured out a way to get power to the transmitters by putting them on traffic lights, which are served with electricity 24 hours a day. However, outside of downtown, this no longer works because they are spaced too far apart.
It is not known exactly how much AT&T will spend for the rollout as they have declined to disclose those details publicly. Analysts, however estimated the cost of the equipment and first year of service at about $500,000.
The free service will be ad-supported and throttled to 512Kbps. A paid version offers 1Mbps speeds for either $7.99 per day or $15.99 a week. AT&T has a five-year contract to maintain the network.