Like many other cities across the country, the outbreak of COVID-19 exposed connectivity challenges in Fort Worth, illustrating the importance of residents having access to a reliable Internet connection at home in order to participate in education, health care and employment opportunities. In the wake of the pandemic, new efforts have taken hold across the country to create free Wi-Fi networks for neighborhoods where residents often lack connectivity. Officials with Fort Worth and Cisco announced the project there this week, projecting it may be fully deployed by fall.
The idea is that the five neighborhoods — Ash Crescent, Como, Northside, Rosemont and Stop Six — will receive free Wi-Fi under an expanded city network called CFW Neighborhood, which is already active at libraries and community centers in Fort Worth, an approach new research has found value in. This new public-private partnership will basically extend the existing network much further, making it cover the homes in the five neighborhoods, too, which are home to roughly 40,000 residents. To achieve this, the city is using radio technology to amplify the existing fiber-optic infrastructure.
“At each of our physical locations, we have fiber-optic cable coming in,” said Kevin Gunn, chief technology officer for Fort Worth. “We take that wired Internet access and then transmit it over radio technology from a community center or a library or in some cases school campuses to transmit that out to the street level.”
“Once transmitted, residents can access and use the Wi-Fi just like they do at a coffee shop, Target or Walmart,” Gunn added.
The project is being billed initially as a three- to five-year solution for connecting more residents. Officials also noted in their announcement that this is part of a broader city effort to connect residents and keep them connected over the next 30 to 50 years.
As for the technology specifics, the city is using Cisco’s Wireless Backhaul product to broadcast the Wi-Fi. Gary DePreta, Cisco area vice president for state, local governments and education, said to do this, they are using access points on utility poles located in the neighborhoods.
Gunn said this installation process had several challenges, including accounting for geographical obstacles.
“Fort Worth has gently rolling hills, we’ve got mature trees, well-established neighborhoods, and taller structures, like three- or four-story buildings, and then downtown has 20- to 40-story buildings, and above,” Gunn said. “So, that was our biggest challenge, designing the radio frequency aspects of the network and making sure we can reach the areas that we need to.”
Despite these challenges, the city decided to take this route to expand Internet connectivity because of how quick the process is to expand Wi-Fi compared to traditional fiber infrastructure.
“Installing fiber-optic cables into neighborhoods and reaching every front door is time, labor and capital intensive,” Gunn explained. “It’s not a quick process. However, this technology can be easily deployed in a very short time.”
As for what’s next, Gunn said that some areas within these neighborhoods still don’t have coverage, making the project a work in progress. However, he added, “we’ve got a lot of coverage out there now, and we’re ready for people to start using it.”
