Monterrey, Mexico — The distinction of being the first city with universal wireless access in the United States only can belong to one, and Tyler van Houwelingen, CEO of Ottawa Wireless, agrees that that city is Grand Haven, Michigan.
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Of course, Grand Haven has an advantage over Philadelphia, New York or Cleveland: Grand Haven is a city of only 14 thousand residents and can be covered with about 90 access points. And the network was constructed in a period of two years by a team of only 15 people.

Which does not mean that it has been easy.

"The network, as it is unfolded now, is attempt 15, 16... almost 20 times in terms of raising the antennas, lowering them, redesigning the network, and trying again. Many attempts were necessary to create a successful network", explained van Houwelingen.

"There were people in the city saying we were crazy, placing so many antennas".

In addition, there were other problems, such as obtaining the authorizations to place the WiFi antennas, and cables to connect them to the Internet.

"This is one of the difficulties, the step rights. In order to cover a whole city, without cables, you need hundreds of WiFi antennas all over the city, and that makes the step rights very complicated", he said.

In addition, the interference of wireless telephones and controls of garage. And a very particular problem: The trees.

"The trees are perhaps the greatest challenge, because entering the summer you cannot pass the signals through the trees; tree leaves eat almost all of the signal", he explained. "But in winter, all the signals pass right through the trees, but then there is more interference, resulting in two opposite but related problems".

The efforts have been fruitful. At the moment Ottawa Wireless is in the process of expansion, connecting new clients to its service daily, that offers high speed wireless Internet at 256 Kbps, anywhere in the city for just 25 dollars per month.

An advantage of Grand Haven is that it is a tourist place --2 million annual visitors, which is an enormous market.

"We provide service to the hotels, the campgrounds and the marinas", explained von Houwelingen. "In the campgrounds, many American now bring their computers. As many as 20 percent of campers bring a laptop, and if they are going to stay for seven days, it becomes obvious that they'll want to connect and to check their email".