I attended the WITI Houston Event on the Digital Houston Initiative, where the city of Houston’s Janis Jefferson (deputy director for the city’s IT Department) told us that the wifi cloud will be complete in 24 months.

Timeline she gave us:

  • 50% citywide coverage by August 2008
  • 100% citywide coverage by August 2009

She also said that speed would be 1MB up and down.

Other info I thought was interesting: the city hired a Digital Inclusion Project Director earlier this year. “The former Executive Director for The Technology Opportunity Institute (TTOI) will develop and engage partnerships among business, philanthropic, education, health and nonprofit sectors to create technology-based opportunities for Houston’s underserved residents.” Might make a good speaker for a future NetSquared meeting (hint, hint).

I can’t wait to see how the wireless/wifi network will actually work.