Wi-Fi Technology In Las Vegas

Mitchell Gonzalez, president of Cheetah Wireless Technologies, is supervising the enlargement of an outdoor wireless network that covers downtown Las Vegas, which will soon expand to the Strip and probably throughout the Las Vegas Valley. In present the coverage of the network in downtown Las Vegas is 95 percent. Strip, who has 12 percent coverage, is planned to reach his target in three phases by the end of the year.

Cheetah's objective, for the near future, is to catch the attention of travelers who want a stable, unfailing and high-speed Internet connection throughout their Las Vegas visit. Transmitters on illumination poles and top broadcast radio frequencies allow people to connect to the Internet with service that is fast enough to play video and download large files. Cheetah provides access at a price around of $6 per hour, more than $20 for three days until $50 for a monthly subscription.

For the most part, the internet services provided to Las Vegas are pay and free Internet connections. There is no wireless service that covers the entire area, excepting service cell phones users can buy from their cell dealers which costs around $80 per month.

Cheetah, founded in 2002, was operating until now on $3 million it raised from private investors and it estimates it will raise $5 million more by the end of the year. The company also plans to trade advertising on the network. In this way the audience can benefit a free or low-cost service.

Gonzalez made an agreement with the owners of the Streamline Tower resort to sponsor the access during the Vegas Grand Prix in exchange for advertising space on the network. Anyone with a Wi-Fi laptop will be able to use the service for free during the event. The races are expected to gather almost 150,000 supporters.

Software development has lead to faster and safer Wi-Fi transmissions. Due to hardware improvements, service providers are able in present to send signals through buildings and to the upper floors of hotels or office towers. Godfrey Chua, a wireless analyst with the Framingham, Mass., research firm IDC, appreciates public wireless generate about $88 million annually nationwide but will grow up to a half billion in the following three years.

Among cities that have tried, and even installed the technology are San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston and Chicago. A Wi-Fi network can be installed quickly through a city for the reasonable price of $10 million. Additionally, the spectrum is free to the provider compared with cellular or licensed radio channels. It means Wi-Fi services are more flexible and low-priced than land-based or cell phone services.

But there is one uncertain aspect. The Cheetah and other wireless providers are concerning whether Southern Nevada's massive tourism industry will embrace or resist technology independent providers. Moreover, because the Wi-Fi frequency spectrum is unlicensed, hotel operators may see the widespread use of this service as a threat and thus impede providers to situate transmitters on private property, or even block or interfere with signals.

One of the daring companies is MGM Mirage who already offers land-based or wireless Internet access in most of its 36,000 hotel rooms at 10 Strip properties at a price of $12 access per day. Also, it underlines the quality of the services promoted as being more safe and multi-option than an outside Wi-Fi provider could supply its guests.

In present, cities as Las Vegas and Clark County are looking for Wi-Fi providers in order to connect network hardware to government property. The growing popularity of Wi-Fi rushed them to employ Alpharetta, Ga.-based consultants Civitium to study the viability of providing coverage of this service throughout the Las Vegas Valley. The objective of the study is to find out whether the benefit of expanded service outweighs the cost of installation and maintenance. Also, the clients of the study are interested to give wireless providers access to infrastructure to install hardware in exchange for discounts, or even free service, for government workers and citizens. The budget of the research is above $117,000.

If the results of the study indicate there would be a benefit in providing Wi-Fi throughout the valley, is possible that Cheetah will come out with proposal against other companies to offer the service. But it may happen that a larger company may win the contract and hire smaller companies, such as Cheetah, to do much of the work.