GILROY
– City Hall could be Gilroy’s next hotspot – wireless Internet
hotspot, that is.
City staff is looking at a couple of options for offering
wireless Internet access to City Hall employees, Council members
and public presenters at bi-monthly City Council meetings.
GILROY – City Hall could be Gilroy’s next hotspot – wireless Internet hotspot, that is.
City staff is looking at a couple of options for offering wireless Internet access to City Hall employees, Council members and public presenters at bi-monthly City Council meetings.
“It’s just a little bit more efficient,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “If you’re in between meetings and you’re trying to get e-mails and trying to be productive, it would be a pretty simple thing. The most important … tool would be for people who are doing presentations who need to access their home server, or if somebody wants to send them a file they need to show.”
Called wireless fidelity service, or wi-fi, hotspots are gaining popularity across the country. Some airports, universities and businesses, including book stores and coffee shops, are hotspots. Gilroy currently has three hotspots: two at Starbucks locations, one on First Street and one in the outlets, and one at The Garlic Farm, an RV campground.
Wi-fi works by emitting a high-speed Internet signal from a transmitter, such as a small antenna, that can be used by multiple laptop users within the signal’s range.
“This is just another service and another capability that we can have,” Pinheiro said. “It’s not an expensive process, either.”
He estimated creating a hotspot at City Hall would be about $500, although the city’s Information Systems Director David Chulick is still waiting for final price figures since he is researching a couple different options.
Many newer laptops are wi-fi ready, but some older laptops need a wi-fi card, which can cost around $50.
Some hotspots use a subscription-only Internet service provider, so Web surfers must pay for the wireless Internet access. Cities that offer public hotspots in parks or community centers usually do so free of charge.
One California city is even planning to offer wireless Internet access to all its 51,000 residents starting next month. Cerritos, in Southern California, claims to be the first city in the nation to offer access across its 8.6-square-mile city limits. Residents in the city are unable to use other high-speed Internet access, such as cable or DSL
