Grand Forks gets free Wi-Fi downtown
By Shara JJ Cooper
Grand Forks’ downtown core is now wired up with free Internet. The Rotary Club of Grand Forks partnered with the City of Grand Forks, Boundary Community Futures and the Grand Forks Credit Union to bring Wi-Fi to businesses and visitors downtown.
The Wi-Fi reaches around the Grand Forks and District Public Library, city hall, the city campground, Gyro Park and down Market Avenue. The Internet can also be received outside of these locations but may not be at full strength.
The local Rotary club worked with the Rotary Club of Peachland because they had worked on a similar project.
“I was thinking – ‘what would be great for the community?’” said Peachland president Brian Junnila, on how he came up with the idea for his community. “It’s great to have Wi-Fi available and it gets the Rotary name out there. We are giving something of value.”
The Internet was installed in phases with the first radio put in at the end of July. The sixth, and last, radio was installed last week.
“Right now 1,500 people can use the Internet at the same time,” said Junnila.
There’s enough bandwidth for people to to check their email on their mobile devices but probably won’t work if everyone is watching a movie at the same time.
The Internet is completely free but has some restrictions. Users can log into the Wi-Fi as much as they want, but every hour they will be logged out automatically and need to reconnect. The Internet is also family-friendly so some sites are restricted.
“The equipment we bought has pretty good restriction for content. You can’t access adult sites – that’s part of the feature set,” said Junnila.
As the service settles into the community, the available bandwidth will be adjusted as needed, with the city managing the Wi-Fi in the future.
