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Chicago officials took the first tentative steps Tuesday toward installation of a citywide
wireless
network that would allow residents to connect to the Internet from easy chairs, school desks and office break rooms — and provide City Hall with a major source of new revenue.
A city task force will study the best way to offer
Wi-Fi
service and will draft legislation designed to preserve the city’s right to permit installation in Chicago before the General Assembly can consider a bill that would preclude municipalities from doing so.
Aside from scattered businesses that may charge a fee, the biggest provider of Wi-Fi service in Chicago is the city’s public library system.
People with laptops can connect for free at 78 library locations where installations “provide high speed data into communities and bring people into the libraries,” said Christopher O’Brien, the city’s chief information officer.
Citywide Wi-Fi installation would entail placing about 7,500 small antennas on street light poles “every block-and-a-half or two blocks” citywide, O’Brien told aldermen attending a joint meeting of the City Council’s Finance and Economic Development Committees.
He estimated the cost at $18.5 million.
