The downtown Raleigh wifi, provided to you at no cost, is up and running. I’m actually writing this blog post while sitting on a bench on Fayetteville Street and the results are very satisfying. I have all my social media applications running just fine and checking my e-mail is pretty snappy. I’m actually quite impressed with the way YouTube runs and if you are patient, pre-loading HD video is not impossible. SpeedTest.net clocked the download AND the upload speed around 1 megabyte. That’s not bad at all for free wifi.
The real question is available bandwidth and how several users at once may slow down the network. A new user will find that multiple access points are spread out around downtown, the closest having the best signal strength. This should alleviate network drops during high usage but I’m curious as to how big the pipes are behind the scenes.
The wifi is available in the highlighted areas shown on this map from this pdf on the city’s website.
These areas make sense as they have lots of foot traffic already and open public spaces where people can sit down and use the internet. Fayetteville, Wilmington, and parts of Blount Street have the most walked on sidewalks. City Plaza, Moore Square, and Nash Square will always have congregations of people that can take advantage of the wifi. The Convention Center is an obvious choice as lots of business takes place here.
This is a great addition to make downtown more marketable.
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- None right now. Must be a new project.
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I’m curious why they didn’t install any WiFi antennas around Glenwood South?
It might not make sense to set it up there just yet. I think we should wait until the hotels, Powerhouse Plaza, Hampton Inn for example, are up and running before we provide the area with wifi. Also, there is not a lot of business taking place in Glenwood South compared to Fayetteville Street so rolling it out there may have to wait.
I gave the wifi a test drive during Raleigh Wide Open this Saturday (albeit from Port City Java). Everything worked great for me. Nice to finally have this addition to downtown.
I wonder if there are any plans to expand the coverage to other streets (beyond Ashe’s Glenwood South suggestion).
I know that some hotels (Marriott in particular) like to charge about 12 for their patrons to use wi-fi service. I wonder how the hotels would feel about lost revenue. I, for one, am pleased with the idea of free wi-fi. I think some of the prices that hotels and coffee shops like to charge for the service is ridiculous!!
^^^ 12 bucks, that is :-)
Gave it a try, first time I was amazed to see Google’s home page!
my wifi antenna is nickel and chrome plated, i think it also uses OFC metal or something`”.
Have you regarded as including more videos to the content to help keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read during the entire article of yours and it was very fine consider I’m really a visual learner,I discovered that being more useful. Just my my idea, Good luck