City Building - Boston goes Wi-Fi with non-profit

Boston is considering an unusual approach to creating a citywide, low-cost wireless Internet network: putting a non-profit organization, rather than a private service provider, in charge of building and running the system.

A City of Boston Wireless Task Force Report released Monday recommended that Mayor Thomas Menino assign an as-yet unidentified non-profit to raise the $16-million to $20-million (U.S.) in private money that the city estimates it will need to build and begin running the Wi-Fi network.

Other U.S. cities launching wireless initiatives have created various layers of oversight to ensure private contractors serve the public interest by keeping prices down, expanding access to low-income neighbourhoods, and, in some cases, opening up the network to rivals.

Boston is one of more than 250 communities nationwide that are preparing or have deployed Wi-Fi service, which uses radio waves to connect users to the Internet at high speeds.