Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Chattanooga, City of WiFi

When Sue and I visited Chattanooga a couple weeks ago, we were pleased to see how much WiFi access there is around the town.

First, we were assured by all the hotel representatives that we met that free WiFi access will be available in all three conference hotels.  We told the hotels that they could expect SIGCSE attendees to be serious WiFi users, so they might want to see what they could do to increase their capacity.

Then we met with the Chattanooga Conference Center folks in charge of their WiFi network.  We gave them the report for how Portland configured their WiFi support to deal with the demands of the SIGCSE participants.  We were told that they would do all they could to meet Portland's capacity, and maybe do a bit better.

As we wandered Chattanooga, we kept finding surprising access.  When I opened up my laptop in the visitor's center, just across from the Tennessee Aquarium (that's the Aquarium on the left in this picture, and the visitor's center is behind the tree on the right), I found that I could get WiFi access from the Aquarium! 
 Free access -- just had to go through several pages of caveats and agreements.

The most unusual one was on the Electric Shuttle, a free shuttle that connects all three hotels, the Aquarium, restaurants, and other attractions around Chattanooga.  Yup, there was a sign 
right on the front of the shuttle -- free WiFi on every shuttle!  It worked, too!

So bring your laptops to Chattanooga in March, and stay connected all over the city!

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