January 22, 2012
01/23/12 Downtown Plymouth, Indiana businesses and residents are now able to connect to free Wi-Fi within the historic business district, Mayor Mark Senter and civic leaders have announced.
Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation (PIDCO), a longstanding shareholder-owned development association, championed the effort with City leaders in 2011 and contracted with DC Tech Solutions, a local Plymouth-based IT firm, to deploy Wi-Fi connectivity to most of downtown in a few short months.
PIDCO and the City of Plymouth believe the Wi-Fi network to be a valuable community asset. PIDCO agreed to fund the equipment and software required, based on their 2011 plan focused on the corporation’s role in catalyzing downtown development and investment.
“DC Tech Solutions provided a cost-effective and scalable introductory pricing for us to try this out,” said PIDCO Board President Jack Davis. “We hope that easy access to Wi-Fi is one of many things that will bring people to downtown Plymouth, and the business people into sidewalk cafes. The anticipated result of more forward-looking partnership initiatives like this will be additional vitality and economic activity in the Central Business District.”
DC Tech Solutions worked with PIDCO leaders, municipal utility departments and many downtown business owners to locate critical tower points and build in signal repeaters needed to enhance coverage. DC Tech will provide the bandwidth and system maintenance going forward.
Wi-Fi users will not need a user name or password, but will simply be able to connect via a wireless network that will listed as an available Wi-Fi connection called “dctech-pidco,” Davis said. If this connection is chosen and the terms of use are accepted, users will have two hours of free Wi-Fi during a 24 hour timeframe. After that time, a screen prompt will ask if the user wants to stay on for an additional time at a nominal cost.
Access inside buildings is not guaranteed to be 100%, depending upon the nature of the building construction and the configuration of the rooms in the building. “Generally, the coverage will be better the closer the user is to an exterior wall or window,” said Dan Sammartano, owner of DC Tech. If a building owner desires full coverage, DC Tech Solutions can suggest an upgrade for the best configuration for their building.