AT&T announced the first commercial launch of its AT&T Metro WiFi solution across 3 square miles of Riverside, Calif. The area includes downtown Riverside, Hunter Technology Park and Adams Auto Center. The mesh-based deployment includes both a municipal public safety network as well as a consumer and business solution. Riverside is testing the service to run video to and from police patrol cars, to monitor traffic and to keep an eye on problem areas for graffiti, illegal dumping and building security.
AT&T is reportedly in the running for a contract to build Chicago's WiFi network.
It will be interesting to see whether AT&T works to integrate its muni-WiFi initiatives with its 3G business. Despite selling the WiFi-enabled iPhone, AT&T hasn't been too friendly with the mobile/WiFi combo. It has also disabled WiFi capabilities in other handsets it sells.
For more on AT&T's deployment:
- read this release
- check out this article from Unstrung