5 most Wi-Fi friendly American cities

When it comes to high speed wireless connections, which big cities are the best?

Lots of metropolitan areas have public Wi-Fi networks. But which places actually get it? Where are you likely to find plentiful opportunities to make a high-speed hookup without paying a bundle? Which ones offer the best coverage and a culture that embraces the unwired life?

You need to know. If your next business trip takes you to a Wi-Fi capital, think of all the wires you can leave at home. Who knows, maybe you can even give your laptop computer a break and take your Wi-Fi enabled Pocket PC along? If you're planning a meeting in wireless Mecca, all the better. You might not have to pay a hotel's outrageous Internet connection fees. (Check out www.Metrofreefi.com, which gives me the lowdown on places that won't charge me to connect.)

So how do you determine the five most Wi-Fi friendly cities in America? A good starting point is Intel's annual "Most Unwired City" survey. It ranks cities based on the number of commercial and public wireless access points, or hotspots, plus airports with wireless access and broadband availability. I also asked business travelers to tell me where they felt the most at home with their wireless devices. And I checked with wireless industry experts, too. Here they are:

•	Seattle. It is difficult to walk through parts of Seattle with a Wi-Fi enabled phone — as I recently did — and not see the networks popping up on your screen, one after the other. It could be the city's legendary coffeehouses, which were among the first to discover that a free hotspot draws in more customers. This, no doubt, gave the city a push toward unwired-ness. But it is far more than a trend now. High-speed Internet access is taken for granted by many of its citizens. One of the main drivers of Wi-Fi has been the University of Washington's Seattle campus, which in 2005 announced an initiative to offer widespread wireless access. "Wireless networking connectivity has rapidly moved from a luxury to a necessity," the acting provost, David Thorud, said in announcing the plan. And when people start thinking of Wi-Fi as a necessity — now that's what I call unwired.
•	San Francisco. The Bay area has always been on the bleeding edge of new technologies, and wireless Internet is no exception. "Certainly, San Francisco has a great section of wireless coverage," says Olivia Hecht, director of marketing at Airpath, a wireless company based in Waltham, Mass. Driving the wireless adoption are legions of bandwidth-hungry mobile workers who cringe when they have to step into a BART train and lose their connection for only a few minutes. That's how much they depend on a constant connection. But it isn't just innovators in the private sector that are fueling the growth of wireless. San Francisco's TechConnect is a city-sponsored initiative for universal, affordable, wireless broadband access, and it promises to make this city the most unwired city in the nation for years to come. Bottom line: if realized, every San Franciscan who wants to have a wireless connection (plus affordable computer hardware and training) would be able to get it under TechConnect.
•	Austin, Texas. Before San Francisco and Seattle came into their own as Wi-Fi hot spots, there was Austin. Here, high-speed Internet access is pushed from the grassroots. Specifically, the Austin Wireless City Project, which is dedicated to improving the availability and quality of public free Wi-Fi in the city. Austin takes its place in the wireless world seriously, and you can tell. Austin also hosts the Texas Wireless Symposium, which highlights the city's tech innovations and its role in the evolution of the wireless industry. Because of its 'for-the-people' attitude toward connectivity, you'll find an inordinately high number of free Wi-Fi connections when you visit.
•	Portland, Ore. You wouldn't necessarily think of Portland as a wireless city. But if you didn't, you'd have to think again. It's hard to miss this city's rise in the Intel survey's rankings, not to mention among the travelers I talk to. The Unwire Portland project is the latest example of its commitment to offering high-speed access to everyone within its city limits. It's a public-private partnership that will, during the coming years, install hotspots in street lampposts, school buildings or radio towers. The completed network would be made available to multiple service providers, who would offer access to residents and visitors. You don't even have to drive into Portland to experience free Wi-Fi — you can get that at the airport. You can make a connection from 70% of the airport terminal's main level, including most gates, the Oregon Market and food court, and lobby areas near the north and south security checkpoints.
•	Atlanta. How ahead of the curve is Atlanta? The answer may surprise you. It announced its citywide Atlanta FastPass Wi-Fi network back in 2003, long before the idea of covering an entire city with a wireless Internet signal hit the mainstream. Another public-private venture, Atlanta FastPass is an extremely high-speed (T1) wireless network that is available in key locations throughout the city, including City Hall, Georgia State University, and numerous neighborhoods. (Note: these are not free hotspots, but a look at the gratis access points suggests that besides the super fast public network, many other residents don't have to pay for their wireless Internet.) Then there's Atlanta's airport, long criticized for its lack of affordable Wi-Fi signal. In September 2005, it flipped the switch on a massive airport-wide network with more than 100 access points covering all 5.8 million square feet of the facility. Best of all, it promised to keep access affordable to the masses of travelers who use the airport.

These unwired cities have a lot in common. They're early adopters, and they have the enthusiastic backing of their residents and government to create vast connectivity zones. What's more, hooking up to one of these big networks is either cheap or free. In other words, these cities think of Wi-Fi as a basic necessity for their residents. Who knows, maybe your city is next?