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Grand Haven Mayor Roger Bergman recently announced the completion of the city's Wi-Fi broadband network.
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According to the mayor, it is the nations first fully operational citywide implementation. Other cities have announced intent to build similar networks or have announced partial deployments; in contrast, the Grand Haven implementation is the first full and complete citywide Wi-Fi deployment.

There are multiple disadvantages to living in small town USA. Among them are atrocious civic politics (where you want to divide people with more than a river in between); a lack of cultural activities: a high school that thinks the most important thing in education is sports; general nosiness about other peoples' affairs; reliance on service industry jobs; and so on. If you do not benefit from the tourist trade, you also find that a disadvantage, and in my city of 4500 people those visitors number in excess of a million a year.

Conversely, if you are in the tourist trade dollar pipeline, my small town USA is advantageous -- although you can get really hungry during the winter. For the rest of us, the advantages of the small city are safety; many kinds of mutual support; recognition of strangers; the knowledge that you're going to hear about something your kid did before they tell you; quality time with your medical practitioner; an elementary school system that many cities can never dream of.

There are also projects that people can get involved in for the benefits of small cities. My spouse, for instance, has brought two major public artworks to our city; one is a mural with fired tile pieces depicting the ocean and local fresh and shellfish; the other is a kinetic fountain fabricated in stainless steel depicting local birdlife. (She's also helped to helm an economic development video and achieved significant charitable grants for an after-school program, but those are other stories.) Others have brought DSL to the city by conning the telephone company; we have a 24/7 classical music FM station and another FM transposer bringing in jazz and NPR. But one thing I never imagined for the city, and now need to, is a citywide Wi-Fi service.

The news of the first city in America to be completely provided with 802.11a, b and g service is unfortunately, but understandably, a commercial venture. The city of Grand Haven http://www.ght.org , Michigan, can now claim citywide coverage (6 square miles) plus service up to 15 miles out into Lake Michigan. Other cities have talked about doing something similar -- but smaller -- but the providers of this service in Grand Haven (home of the world's largest musical fountain) have overcome the logistics of finding antenna locations and total coverage with the assistance of the city. In doing so Grand Haven beats the likes of Chasko, MN, and Santa Clara, CA, to the same goal.

The system uses hundreds of radios and was installed by Ottawa Wireless (Grand Haven is in Ottawa County) the CEO of which is an ex-Intel engineer, Tyler van Honwelinger. The services offered are Internet access at 256 kbit/s for $19.99 a month (with higher speeds and a day-rental service also available), mobile VoIP for $29.99 with unlimited calls, as well as dedicated VPN. Remote video surveillance is also being touted. So far the system has more than 300 customers, who are businesses, restaurants, city administration, hotels, marinas, a realtor (who shows clients multiple listings in the car while driving past properties), and public safety and the area hospital are coming on board.

A number of the businesses are subsidizing the service for their clients (at hotels, for example) and a local web designer http://www.hitspring.com has moved his office to his boat for the duration of the summer.

This city of 12,000 people (with 2 million visitors a year -- that fountain must really be something!) and its mayor, Roger Bergman, are to be commended for looking so far forward in making their small community more accessible to all.

But I bet they don't have a 24/7 classical music station…

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