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Wireless Ypsi

From ArborWiki

Wireless Ypsi is not, in fact, broadcast from atop the Ypsilanti Water Tower.

In early 2008, a group of Ypsilanti residents and downtown Ypsilanti businesses began pooling wireless internet signals in order to blanket downtown Ypsi. Where the official Wireless Washtenaw effort would attempt to implement a single-provider system over the entire County, the Wireless Ypsi effort is using a system called Meraki to piggyback the public access on top of a large number of private internet access points.

Wireless Ypsi's website describes it as "a community collective dedicated to bringing free broadband internet access to Ypsilanti," and states a mission of both "bridging the digital divide" to help lower-income families access the internet and also serving as a tool for attracting "creative class" young professionals and businesses to Ypsilanti.

As of early February 2008, Wireless Ypsi was approaching 500 users and 25 access points, and beginning to spread from downtown to Depot Town and the surrounding neighborhoods.