Hot Town, Summer in the City
At first the “Free Wi-Fi” flyers could only be spotted in Austin coffee houses. 
Now hot spots are everywhere: Lovejoy’s Bar, Republic Square Park, Zen restaurants, libraries, City Hall, Chango’s (yet another reason to love this place), Alamo Drafthouse, Texas French Bread, Longhorn Collision Center, the airport, Driskill Hotel, Schlotzky’s, Book People, etc. Soon the entire city of Austin will be hot: Newsweek reports that with around 50 free hotspots, Austin has more free wireless access any than place on the planet.
This week’s Chron has the scoop on how Richard MacKinnon and the Wireless City Project are heating up Austin’s reputation as a tech leader.
Money quote: “… people driving by in their cars know that there’s a hot spot in Republic Square Park now and so what they’re doing is just pulling into a parking space over by the park ? or anywhere within range of that transmitter, or any other for that matter, checking their e-mail, and then take off. It’s pretty amazing.”
Out of curiosity, I checked to how other places stacked up. Here’s some approximations:
Chicago: 36 free hotspots
San Francisco: 33 free hotspots (doubtful)
Mississippi: 12 free hotspots
Atlanta: 44 free hotspots
Cincinnati: 4 free hotspots
Lexington: 4 free hotspots
Louisville: 12 free hotspots
Moscow, Idaho 11 free hotspots
Boston: 21 free hotspots
Portland: 40 free hotspots
Baton Rouge: 11 free hotspots
Austin Wi-Fi resources:
Austin Wireless City
Austin Free-Net
Austin Unleashed