Connectivity is key. Nowadays we all know how important it is to be connected and how imperative it is for a locality to be connected to the huge, worldwide internet grid. Back in the day we used to dream of having Wi-FI everywhere we go. I still remember the first time I went to Milan back in 2007 and they had free Wi-FI almost allover the city. I couldn’t believe that we’re slowly getting closer to to a time where WI-Fi is accessible from everywhere. Fast forward 10 years and the technology advanced so much that nowadays it’s physically and technologically possible for any city to have Wi-FI.
One of the many dreams I have for our beautiful hometown of Msida is to make it the first town in Malta that offers 100% Free Wi-FI in all areas of the locality. Keep in mind that Msida is home to the University, to Junior College and also to the Mater Dei Hospital. This means that we have an extra influx of people that spends a considerable amount of time in Msida. With that in mind I believe that we will be doing these visitors an extra service if we’re capable of offering them with the possibility of having free Wi-FI.
In my blog titled “Proposals for a better Msida – #2 – Keeping Msida Clean” I wrote about the idea of having an increased number of bins around Msida. I also described the idea of having a solar panel connected with each bin so that it will solar-power a screen which can be used for advertising. Today I’m taking this idea a step further.
If have these solar power bins, we could easily install a Wi-FI repeater on them that is powered through the same solar panel. This will be connected to a main router that will be able to transmit the Wi-FI signal to wherever we have these bins. Obviously we can utilize other things that fall under the responsibility of the local council in order to attach as a repeaters. However by utilizing the bins as Wi-FI repeaters we would have automatically expanded the Wi-FI to cover most of the locality. The benefit of this is that there’s only a minimal cost for the initial setup, the monthly internet connection fee and any maintenance that might be needed. There isn’t an electricity bill to take care of because these will all be powered via the solar panel on each bin.
We are not reinventing the wheel here. Such technology is already being used in New York and in Singapore. I had the opportunity of seeing this system at work in New York and from what I’ve seen, it’s very doable to be implemented in our town, Msida.
The above is just another idea that I have that we can do for Msida. There’s definitely a lot more ideas that we can discuss and I will be sharing these with you over the next few months.
Read previous proposals for Msida below:
Proposal #2 – Keeping Msida Clean
Proposal #1 – A large scale parking area project at the University area