Paris Wi-Fi

Paris, a cidade das luzes, agora é também uma cidade sem fio. O projeto Paris Wi-Fi, que oferece internet sem fio gratuitamente nos espaços públicos (parques, quiosques, bibliotecas, museus) da cidade, foi lançado ontem pelo prefeito da capital francesa. O Paris Wi-Fi está presente em 225 áreas públicas da cidade. O custo do projeto é 2 milhões de euros e a taxa anual da manutenção é 500 mil euros. A dica veio do Carnet de Notes.

Abaixos trechos de uma matéria publicada no MuniWireless.

"The city of Paris is now offering free Wi-Fi service in over 225 public areas such as parks and libraries. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë launched the service today. France Telecom is suing the city, claiming unfair competition. Never mind that France Telecom itself participated in the public tender but lost out to SFR.

Among the areas where free Wi-Fi service is available are parks, musems, libraries, and community centers. They do turn off Wi-Fi access at night when the parks and libraries close, except for the square in front of City Hall and around the Champ-de-Mars, where Wi-Fi is available 24 hours a day.

Visit the Paris Wi-Fi website: http://wifi.paris.fr. You can find out where there is access, by arrondissement, by clicking here.

The city partnered with SFR, a French operator that competes with France Telecom (that probably explains FT's desire to kill the project), and Alcatel-Lucent. France Telecom operates a number of paid hotspots around the city and is Apple's partner for the iPhone launch. SFR has just won the bid to unwire the city of Nantes (also with Alcatel-Lucent).

Oddly enough, it was San Francisco's plan to bring free Wi-Fi that inspired Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë. Now of course, San Francisco has no free Wi-Fi, but Paris does."