Free wireless Internet access planned for parts of centre of Helsinki
City of Helsinki not involved in private initiative
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Wireless Internet access at no cost is to be opened on Helsinki's Esplanade and a small part of Unioninkatu and Eteläranta at the beginning of March. In addition to the Esplanade Park, the signal will reach businesses and cafés in the area.
The service will be accessible to anyone with an Internet telephone or a laptop computer with a WLAN card.
The project is the idea of former Nokia manager and author Kalle Isokallio, who became tired of what he saw as foot-dragging by the City of Helsinki in developing a wireless WLAN network.
Oulu, Lahti, and Turku have a number of wireless Internet base stations donated by municipal authorities. The Estonian capital Tallinn is also famous for its WLAN cafés.
"I wanted to show that this can be built as a one-man operation. It's not about money - it's about the will", Isokallio says.
The costs are being shared by Isokallio himself, the Royal restaurant chain, and Fujitsu. Maintenance costs are about two thousand euros a month.
The OpenEspa network uses three base stations, which are situated on the roofs and balconies of the Theatre and Savoy restaurants and the G.W. Sundmans building. The signal should reach the window seats of restaurants and cafés on the Esplanade.
Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen was one of those who were invited to the event announcing the establishment of the new WLAN network. Pajunen repeated the view of the city, which is to leave the establishment of such a network to private enterprises.
As Pajunen sees it, the involvement of public money could stagnate technological development. He noted that in France, the Minitel system, which was in millions of French homes in the 1980s, proved ultimately to be an impediment to the spread of the Internet in the country.
Meanwhile, Lahti has enthusiastically taken up the challenge. Last year it opened the base stations that had been used for municipal business to the public at large, establishing a free wireless Internet network in the city.
Timo Karppinen, Lahti's head of development, says that money is not an issue; the establishment of the network cost the city just EUR 5,000 in extra costs.
He says that it would have cost tens of thousands to buy the kind of publicity that the free wireless Internet service has brought the city.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 24.2.2006 - TODAY |
 Free wireless Internet access planned for parts of centre of Helsinki
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