Spokane’s ‘Hot Zone’ gets national attention

The latest issue of Time Magazine calls Spokane’s downtown wireless “Hot Zone” the possible birthplace of the technotopia of the future.

The article’s author, after visiting downtown Spokane, called it a “sleepy metropolis that cut the cord” by using high-tech equipment to connect people and workers on a larger scale than any other city has.

Apart from annoyance at being called sleepy, the people who helped design Spokane’s downtown Hot Zone say they appreciate the publicity, but they’re not sure their brainchild has progressed beyond an experiment into something of lasting value for most residents here.

The 100-square-block area of downtown Spokane now offers high-speed wireless connections for anyone using a Wi-Fi notebook or handheld computer. Since launching in June, the network — relying on hardware provided by several area companies and managed by the city — has seen steady but not very heavy use, said one of those who helped put it together.

At any one time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., the free portion of the network has about 30 users connected, said Chad Skidmore of 180Networks, the company that’s providing the Internet backbone for the Hot Zone.

That use has stayed steady the past two months. But in an effort to not compete with wireless networks in downtown buildings, the Hot Zone is only available outside, Skidmore said. As cool weather approaches, daily use will decline, he said.

Time’s publicity is welcome, said Joel Hobson, technical services director for the City of Spokane. But it doesn’t answer the Hot Zone’s key dilemma, which is what will be the “killer application” that makes the wireless zone a compelling downtown attraction, Hobson said.

Hobson and Mike Edwards, director of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, talked about the Hot Zone at a recent conference in Vancouver, British Columbia hosted by the International Downtown Association. Both said the goal of the zone is developing businesses downtown and making the area more attractive.

“We know that we’ve built something really cool, but we don’t ultimately know what we’ll use it for,” Hobson said.

What has been easier to accomplish, said Hobson, is using the Hot Zone as a link between city and county workers. Instead of relying on slower or less reliable radios or cell phone services, fire and police crews are already testing handhelds and laptops in their vehicles that stay in touch through wireless signals, said Hobson.

Over time, the use will grow beyond public safety workers and include meter patrols, street department workers and others, he said.

Hobson and others who helped assemble the downtown zone consider it just the first step in a much broader community network. Hobson said the city and county have received a $150,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, to push the zone even farther outside downtown.

The next phase, expected to be tested by the end of the year, will be an extension of the downtown network out west to Airway Heights.

Over time, the long-term goal is a full “wireless cloud” that covers most of the city and county, allowing workers and citizens to surf the Web and stay connected to their offices while strolling or driving, he said.

As many new concepts do, the extended Hot Zone will give birth to better uses over time, as people test the idea and see where the technology will take them, he said.