Unwiring Indy

Taking a lunch on the City Circle just got a little more high-tech. City residents will no longer have to leave their email and buddy lists at home, thanks to a new free wireless connection, sponsored by the Columbia Club, which gives visitors and residents the ability to “log on” from the circle. eWireless hopes the ability to stay connected, even while on the go, will draw more people downtown and create a place for local business people to take a “wireless lunch break.”

A new free wireless connection provides the ability to “log on” from the circle.

This new connection is part of a push by eWireless to bring Indianapolis into step with the rest of the country. Creating free broadband access is an increasingly popular customer service strategy for many businesses, such as hotels, coffee shops and doctor’s offices, whose guests and customers see wireless access as a basic customer service. National access to these services has even become a part of President Bush’s 2004 campaign platform.

Indianapolis businesses have been slow to embrace this trend, however. The city ranked a disappointing 46th in Intel’s most recent “Unwired” survey, which ranks cities by wireless connectivity and number of “hotspots” — areas where users can connect to a wireless network. Indianapolis, despite being the 12th largest city in the country, has significantly fewer hotspots than many smaller cities, such as Colorado Springs, Colo. (20th), Hartford, Conn. (20th) and Ann Arbor, Mich. (40th).

eWireless, backed by Sputnik, a San Francisco-based Wi-Fi provider, hopes to push Indianapolis into the top 10 and create a “web” of connectivity to cover all of downtown. As more businesses offer connections, and those connections overlap, eventually the entire downtown will become a part of a large network.
President of eWireless and native Hoosier, Kirby Goble, said that he sees the lack of free, available wireless broadband as another reason that young, college-educated people are leaving Indiana. According to the same “Unwired” study, Indiana University and Purdue University rank number one and two on the list of the top 100 most connected campuses. “No one else is providing these services,” Goble said. “Students get used to the availability of wireless, but once they get out into the work force no one is doing it.”

Scott Weaver, IT Chairman for the Columbia Club, says they hope the new connection on the City Circle will prove valuable to their members, patrons and guests. “We are pleased to be one of eWireless’ initial 100 partners and look forward to monitoring the impact that this new technology brings to our regular operational offerings,” Weaver said.

Indianapolis Downtown, Inc., a not for profit organization dedicated to attracting and keeping technology firms, promoting residential development and expanding the retail options downtown, has embraced eWireless’ campaigns. They hope to promote the plan by listing free access points on their Web site, www.indydt.com.

“Having free wireless access on Monument Circle is a great asset for downtown,” said Tamara Zahn, president of IDI. “It’s yet another reason for business people, residents, and visitors alike to frequent downtown and take advantage of this high-tech amenity.”

In addition to access at the circle, eWireless maintains its own hotspot in Broad Ripple, centered in their offices above the Starbucks on Broad Ripple Avenue and covering about a two block radius.