City going WiFi, using EarthLink

City of Milpitas entered an agreement with EarthLink Inc. Tuesday night to provide WiFi, or wireless Internet service, to the city and its residents.
Bill Marion, Milpitas information services director, said under the agreement, the city will allow EarthLink to mount WiFi transmitters on city-owned streetlights and traffic signal poles within the city limits.
Staff reports state between 30 and 45 devices will be installed per square mile.
Marion said there are 55 similar devices on city poles, which are used for Milpitas Fire and Police departments.
Marion said EarthLink will provide wireless services to City of Milpitas at no charge, including Milpitas' city hall, library, teen center, senior center and community center.
Residents will be offered service at a monthly rate of $20. Other rate plans include $5 for daily use by visitors or business travelers.
Staff reports indicate that the term of service in the agreement is for 10 years, with two additional five-year terms.
Additionally, EarthLink has agreed to reimburse the city for staff time spent supporting the project, Marion said.
"We hope to offer the city a wide spectrum of service from free service, to high-quality paid service you'd expect from a hardwire Internet service," Marion said. "That includes spam protection and virus protection.
"At some point in the future there could be regional WiFi," Marion added. "So I could go out of Milpitas to another city in Santa Clara County and still be hooked to a WiFi provider. That's still in the future, but it's a possibility."
EarthLink is one of the largest Internet service providers in the country, and hosts WiFi broadband service in Philadelphia and Anaheim, Marion said.
He added that the cities of Portland, Ore. and Minneapolis are in negotiations to have WiFi service through EarthLink.
Marion added that the city may enter into an agreement with an additional service provider, giving residents options for service.
According to staff reports, another company, MetroFi, has installed equipment in several South Bay cities. City staffers are in talks with that company also.

Wireless WiFi Flip Phone

A lot of phones have popped up over the past year that allow a person to make phone calls over the Internet, provided the person is talking in a place that offers wireless Internet, or WiFi, access.
But Santa Clara's TelTel, in a partnership with D-Link, has put a new spin on that idea, offering a WiFi phone that has neither cords nor cordless ``base stations.'' That means you don't need to plug the phone into your computer for it to work, nor do you need to set your phone down in a charging base when you're done, as you would with cordless WiFi phones.
With the D-Link phone, which uses TelTel software, a person just needs to open up the phone, log onto the WiFi network, and be off and running, TelTel said.
The D-Link phone should be available at major electronics stores in June and will cost about $200, said Jack Chang, TelTel's chief operating officer.