The Downtown Denver Partnership is working on a plan to bring free wireless Internet access to the 16th Street Mall.
In the meantime, Denverites might want to take their laptops to Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, where the Boulder Business Improvement District launched free Web access late last week. Computer users with wireless-enabled laptops or personal digital assistants can surf the Web or send e-mail from the brick-laid portion of Pearl Street.
The Downtown Denver Partnership is spending $1,000 to study the project’s feasibility. The group also is consulting with officials in other areas where public wireless access is available, including Cherry Creek North and the city of Spokane, Wash.
“We’re in the early stages, but we’re talking implementation in months, not years,” said John Desmond, vice president of urban planning and environment for the Downtown Denver Partnership. “We want to do something that encourages people to use the mall.”
Boulder’s downtown booster organization spent $10,000 on a system that uses solar energy to generate wireless access. The system, produced by Boulder-based Lumin Innovative Products, features solar panels and battery-operated routers mounted on the roofs of three Pearl Street buildings. Solar-powered batteries help transmit Internet signals along the mall. The only wire used runs from a roof panel to a land-line connection within the Broadway Suites building, home to the Boulder Business Improvement District’s offices.
Solar-powered Web access is an option for the 16th Street Mall but could prove to be more difficult to install, given the shade Denver’s tall buildings create, Desmond said. The Denver project would extend 16 blocks and possibly include Skyline Park, he said. Wireless access on Pearl Street stretches about five blocks.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
