At an impromptu lunch meeting for potential investors, officials of Zippy Networks let it slip that they are in talks and looking for places to deploy the first city-wide metro mesh WiFi deployment, right here in Wichita! When we asked them to elaborate – they became closed lip, but invited us to seek potential business and public support for the network.

They promised to continue their mission toward providing free and low cost Internet services to everyone… So, what does this mean for downtown? “At first we don’t expect to see a rush of people wanting to support our network,” said Eric Henderson, Founder and CEO of Zippy Networks. “We have always built our network one access point and one location at a time.., this extension will have a total of 48 nodes and will start with 6 in the heart of downtown’s entertainment district – Old Town. It is extremely exciting for us because we have never had the opportunity to build [the network] in a densely populated downtown environment before and I think people will be slow to notice the free WiFi signals at first… This is a perfect strategy so that we can iron out all the details on the network operations and it should help us secure long term leases and building owner support so that we actually have places to put these radios and antennas which are needed to give the end user a seamless wireless connection through out all of the downtown area… What this means is everyone who can see our signals with their regular laptops, wifi enabled cell phones and pda’s will be able to access out network – without all the expensive 3^rd party software or hardware required to connect to the other alternative services available in our community… This means people can move from location to location and stay connected. IP enabled phones that are being made will allow cell customers to save on their cellular minutes by connecting through our internet services and connecting to whomever they are calling – around the world – at a fraction of the cost of traditional telephone or cellular service rates… Connectivity is the key… As we develop our network and start bringing this technology into the mainstream of Wichita – more and more people, as well as government, will start using it. I will be holding several technology briefing to local city councils and department heads from the various state and local agencies to help gain more public support and interest.

We asked Mr. Henderson about the security of the network and how his company plans on monitoring the network. “ We have staff watching for anything unusual that our advanced servers and firewalls on our network don’t already catch. Because we do not sell the service as an Internet connection, but rather as a connection to our network and to our partners and sponsors websites, we are free to limit and restrict traffic to known dangerous places in the Internet. Zippy WiFi Wichita will use the most advanced equipment available based on an open architecture that will allow us to grow the network and co-op with competing service providers by allowing them to resell and brand our services as their own. At that point, if connect through a 3^rd party vendor, all traffic originating over our network will be subject to that person’s regular ISP policies. We have taken a lot of time to evaluate security and safety over our network and are very comfortable with what we have built. It is so secure that we are asking the state for input on our security and encryption policies to allow very high levels of security so that even law enforcement officers could safely access restricted and confidential information over our network.. This one aspect of the network will blow the socks off of any cost-savings measure the city or county has ever seen… We’ll tell you more and be making public demonstrations of the speed and usability of our network very soon… “

There seems to be no end to the possibilities that this technology could have. Economic development, additional advertising and media spin-offs, public and political information sharing, enabling private business and government to have a truly mobile workforce. Officers might be able to fill out paper work over a secured private VLAN and have reports printed on their supervisor’s desk printer, or have tickets signed in real time and filed with the courts immediately… Automatic meter reading and dispatching for emergency services and utility service personnel.   Private business can connect to their office computers wirelessly anywhere we have coverage… accident scene communications with the ability to give real-time video over the network to police, fire and rescue workers, including doctors… “ there really is no excuse for not having this already.. the technology has been here for a while – just waiting for someone to embrace it and bring it to market. Zippy WiFi Wichita will do just that…”

If you would like information on the network, please visit Zippy Network’s company blog website at http://www.ZippyWiFi.com. If you know of a site owner who would like to sponsor a node to help extend the reach of the network, you are encouraged to contact Zippy WiFi  as soon as possible. “Special arrangements will be made for the owners and employees of venues where we want to extend our services if we can install our hardware that supports the network there.”