Silicon Valley Metro Connect to provide free wireless broadband in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Metro Connect to provide free wireless broadband in Silicon Valley

The entire Silicon Valley in the United States is due to get free wireless broadband connectivity in the coming days.

The project would be handled by a group named Silicon Valley Metro Connect and they would provide this service in the entire 42 cities comprising the Silicon Valley.

The group is backed by tech giants including IBM, Cisco, SeaKay, and Azulstar and the project has received the approval of the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT).

They would be using both the wireless technologies Wi-Fi and WiMax to provide the connectivity over an area of 1,500 square miles. They would provide six tiers of service, two of which are free.

Tyler van Houweligen, chief executive officer for Azulstar spoke on this project: “There are 42 cities that have joined onto the collaborative effort, which we find really amazing because you can never get 42 cities to do anything. It’s almost like a public utility network, which is where we want to go with this. We want it to be conceived of as a public utility because it is.”

He adds: “We hope that this kills dial-up instantly. Our goal is that dial-up rests in peace as soon as possible. The free services will present challenges to existing ISPs. One of the big reasons that people are concerned with net neutrality is that it’s a duopoly and this essentially breaks the duopoly.”