Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., has begun work on its first demonstration program for the city's wireless initiative. Mayor Thomas Menino said that a 1-sq-mile (2.6-sq-km) wireless network will be installed in Roxbury's Grove Hill and Dudley Square neighborhoods. He also said there will be Wi-Fi hot spots in Quincy Market and North End's Columbus Park.

The Quincy Market hot spot will provide service throughout the marketplace area and will also cover the area around City Hall Plaza. Two companies, Galazy Internet Services and SkyPilot, donated the service and equipment. IBEW Local 103 donated time and labor for the radio installation. The Columbus Park hot spot is the result of a collaboraton among Verizon, Cisco Inc., the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Parks department.

In its report last summer, the mayor's Wireless Task Force found that only 43% of Boston residents have high-speed Internet service and city officials estimate that access in less affluent areas like Grove Hall is far below that percentage. What's more, as many as 80% of Boston public school students do not have access at home.

The task force recommended a unique model that relies on a nonprofit entity to build the citywide wireless system. The nonprofit will build a wholesale network open to any Internet service provider. The service, which will be 25 times faster than dial-up, will initially be offered free but eventually will move to a fee-based structure expected to be as low as US$10 to $15 per month. The Roxbury demonstration project will reach about 5000 households.