Grassroots free wireless Internet is spreading throughout Ypsilanti and across Metro Detroit thanks to Wireless Ypsi. What is essentially a WiFi co-op now covers large sections of the city, including downtown, Depot Town and Riverside Park.

So far the local initiative founded by community activists Steve Pierce and Brian Robb has passed 5,000 users since it launched at the beginning of this year. It averages 200 users per day and has plans to begin covering other sections of the city, such as Cross Street and various low-income housing developments.

The initiative, which is run more like a non-profit than a business, does this with
Meraki technology. The Google-funded start up uses off-white transmitters that look like a child's walkie talkie to connect Internet hot spots at local businesses, institutions and homes. The transmitters use the extra bandwidth from the hot spots to create a mesh-like net of Wi-Fi coverage.

Similar systems are spreading in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and San Diego. More than 50,000 different people have logged onto San Francisco’s Meraki network, which covers large sections of the city and has the goal of reaching every neighborhood.

Wireless Ypsi has also helped jump start similar initiatives in Dearborn, Trenton, Elizabeth Park by Trenton and Lincoln Park.

"We'll go wherever someone wants us to go," Pierce says.

Source: Steve Pierce, co-founder of Wireless Ypsi
Writer: Jon Zemke