Free WiFi Network Service In East Palo Alto Shutting Down; Cites Declining Users
MENLO PARK (KCBS) — A non-profit is pulling the plug on a free public WiFi network, originally designed to help bridge the digital divide in Silicon Valley for residents in East Palo Alto and the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park, as Google is shutting down it's own network that it runs on.
LISTEN:
WiFi101 launched in 2004, with the goal of bringing the Internet to areas along highway 101 like East Palo Alto that were much less connected than the rest of Silicon Valley.
"We connected churches, we connected the YMCA," Stuart Jeffery, a board member of Computers for Everyone that operated the network, said.
Google is decommissioning the Mountain View network that provided the backhaul, it will no longer be available. Google is replacing the Mountain View network with a higher-quality one.
He said monthly users have been declining for several years now as the technology becomes more outdated. Eight thousand people were using the network two years ago but now that number has dwindled down to about 2,000.
The equipment used by the network older and no longer reliable; a major overhaul of the network would be necessary to keep it running. It's the same problem that Google has had with its free WiFi network, he said.
"But what's happened is Google had built a network in Mountain View and they have found it very difficult, just like we have, to provide reliable service and people are migrating off the network," Jeffrey said.
Google's network was the backbone for WiFi101 and now both will be going dark but Jeffery said they plan to refocus their efforts on the primary mission of CES: getting low-cost or NO-cost technology to low income families.
The network, was funded by a three-year grant from the California Emerging Technology Fund, was operated by a consortium of nonprofits. Currently, the WiFi101 network is still up, Jeffery said, but since Google is in the process of disassembling the Mountain View network, it could shut down at any time.
TRENDING STORIES:
