Lansing-based
ACD.net, which provides wireless internet services for the city’s downtown businesses and residents, as well as its police security cameras, has launched a wireless network in
Springfield in southwest Michigan.
“Our wireless network will change how residents and business owners use the Internet,” says ACD.net president and CEO, Kevin Schoen. “Wireless systems in use today are like a trickling stream. Our Springfield and Lansing systems are like Niagara Falls.”
In pilot testing for months, ACD.net and the city of Springfield commemorated the success of
SpringfieldNet with a ribbon cutting ceremony April 15 with City Manager Frank Peterson. The project was funded through a $750,000 grant obtained by
Battle Creek Unlimited, the economic development group of Springfield, Battle Creek and Marshall. The industrial grade technology reaches hundreds of users.
Schoen says that with federal stimulus money, it may be possible to effectively expand the technology to other cities and university campuses.
Residents in the seven-square-mile Springfield network are paying $10 per month for three years. Over the next year, the company intends to expand its service to areas of Battle Creek, Schoen says.
The system allows users to make phone calls over the Internet (known as V
oice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP) and to send and receive massive documents such as blueprints and movies using laptop computers.
Source: Kevin Schoen, ACD.net
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached
here.
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