Wi-Fi HotZone to go live

City officials will formally flip the switch on Spokane’s downtown Wi-Fi HotZone on June 23. The 100-block free-Internet zone will get its first serious workout the following weekend during Hoopfest.

Area businesses and the city of Spokane have collaborated on the idea, which they hope will be an economic development tool.

Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity, a term that’s come to mean free data connectivity for people who have laptop computers or mobile handhelds, such as personal digital assistants.

Users have already been enjoying the free downtown Wi-Fi zone for more than five weeks, said Robin Toth, Spokane’s economic development project manager.

The zone stretches from Interstate 90 on the south to Riverfront Park on the north, and from Division Street on the east to Cedar Street on the west. The project has cost the city about $50,000 for computer hardware, said Toth. The total value of the project, including donations of equipment and time, comes to about $400,000, she said.

“Not all 100 blocks are guaranteed working right now. But they all will be, by June 23,” Toth said.

Spokane Mayor Jim West will ceremonially flip the switch that day, during a kickoff event at 10 a.m. in Riverfront Park.

During this year’s Hoopfest, city “street crew” members will roam downtown showing people how to log onto the network, Toth added. The city and its partners also will host a tent in Riverfront Park with tablet PCs so that people can check on team scores or surf the Web.

Creating open downtown Wi-Fi zones has become a national trend, with many metropolitan areas announcing plans to offer full wireless access. City officials in Portland and Seattle in recent weeks have floated ideas similar to what Spokane’s already done.

Spokane’s city police patrols are already using the Wi-Fi zone, said Joel Hobson, technical services manager for the city. Police officers in patrol cars use the downtown broadband connection to quickly check on suspects’ records, Hobson said.

Later this year, the city’s downtown parking enforcement team also will use mobile handheld computers when issuing tickets, to eliminate the current system of keeping paper records of tickets issued, he said.

The 100-block HotZone is the first step in a long-term plan to expand wireless connections to the north side of the Spokane River, the medical district to the south, and the Riverpoint Higher Education Campus, Hobson said.

Also on the drawing board are plans to provide Wi-Fi connectivity in Airway Heights, he said. Equipment provided by technology company Vivato will be placed on top of the Waste to Energy plant there.

“From there, we’ll be able to provide a good connection to most of the area along Highway 2 in Airway Heights,” said Hobson.

A number of area companies have sold or contributed equipment and services to provide the downtown network, including Vivato, OneEighty Networks Inc., Purcell Systems, Itronix Corp., the Downtown Spokane Partnership, WhiteRunkle, and Kiemle & Hagood Co.