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Useful Stats: Top 100 Wireless Cities, Colleges
America loves lists of the top "fill in a number" for almost anything. When the almost anything is actually useful information, then a community or state's ranking can help guide public policy discussion toward moving up or down the list as would be deemed most desirable.
Some rankings, however, tend to serve the lists' developers more than public good (such as those based on ad sales in magazines or poorly constructed samples, formulae or data). Other rankings, because of their wide distribution or coverage in the media, can have unintended negative consequences for policy development. AEA's Cyberstates report is perhaps a good example of how, for many, the definition of high-tech is now limited to or synonymous with businesses in information and communications technologies.
The "Most Unwired Cities and Colleges" lists developed by Intel Corp., makers of the Centrino™ mobile technology, seems to cross list types. Wireless Internet accessibility does allow greater freedom for communication and web-based productivity, but it also requires currently the purchase of broadband service, a router and and some Wi-Fi card or technology, like Centrino.™
Wi-Fi's potential to make Web-access virtually free - because anybody within range with the right technology can connect to the web - has some Internet service providers nervous. Several communities are already working on wireless neighborhoods as an economic development tool (see the Aug. 29, 2003, issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest). Others see it as a cost-effective way to tackle the digital divide.
So it is that Intel's second annual lists of the top 100 unwired cities, colleges and airports is presented:
- Led by the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange County, and Washington, D.C., the top 100 most unwired cities are listed at: http://www.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/unwiredcities.htm
- A list of the top 100 most unwired colleges, showing Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of Texas at Austin with the top honors, is available at: http://www.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/unwiredcolleges.htm
- The list of most unwired airports is at: http://www.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/unwiredairports.htm
More information on Intel's method for developing the lists can be viewed at: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20040406corp.htm