Funferal

Soros gives CU-Wireless cash to develop world’s most advanced community wireless network

From a CU-Wireless Press Release:

The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CWN) has been awarded a significant grant from the Open Society Institute, funded by the Soros Foundation, to develop wireless technology to be used around the globe, with a focus on developing nations. Urbana-Champaign will become the testing ground for this technology.
The Community Wireless Network is building a high-speed communications network that promises to support publishing and city-wide Internet radio broadcast by citizens, a community-owned local telephone service, and bandwidth sharing. The network uses off-the-shelf wireless hardware to spread a “web” of network connectivity across town. The CWN uses open-source software and open-architecture hardware created by the CWN development team. Using essentially the same “WiFi” equipment you may use in your home or office, the CWN puts equipment on rooftops to connect users with their neighbors to form a high-speed community network.