Connected: North East Texas Wireless Initiative

North East Texas Wireless Initiative

In Queen City and Atlanta Texas, many letter-writing campaigns and all requests for service by individuals and businesses from our telephone company fell on deaf ears until the announcement of the N.E.T.W.I. project in Jan. 2004. A group of computer enthusiasts in North East Texas decided to take the 'last mile' problem into their own hands after reading about MESH network deployments in the UK, Australia and Malaysia. The collection of local citizens with interest in the project included an extraordinary pool of talent. Network Administrators, Engineers, Programmers, and Ham Radio Operators from the area got together with local businesses, the cities of Atlanta and Queen City, and local civic organizations to work together on the first Municipal-Wide 'Open Source' Wireless MESH Network in the country, and it worked!

The one thing that made the project unique is that the team used Open Source Technology and 'off the shelf' hardware to build the 'nodes' which were deployed on all of the water towers in the city and neighborhoods around town. N.E.T.W.I. had to 'home-brew' their equipment. Additionally, the entire network has been built with volunteer efforts, and generous donations of time and resources by the cities, citizens and local business-truly a community project. Today, (only 18 months later) Atlanta and Queen City residents enjoy the same level of access to low-cost broadband services, which are available in urban areas.

The N.E.T.W.I. network works, primarily because of the freedom to innovate and make it work. We had the opportunity to share our experiences, and help educate legislators in Texas about WiFi-and the capabilities of this emerging technology to reach rural Texas today! The primary goal of N.E.T.W.I. has been to provide access to broadband technologies for citizens and businesses in our small east Texas town that are outside the reach of the telephone companies infrastructure.

The Challenge: 

• Initial tests of WiFi technology demonstrated great potential in mobile computing, broadband deployment, security and more. The project was to test WiFi MESH technology to determine if it could be used to penetrate and circumvent the dense foliage in the area and bring broadband to the rural community.
• A Municipal Wide ‘Open Source’ Network had never been tried before; education of local and state officials was a major obstacle initially.

Making the Case:

• Located in a demographically depressed area with very low per capita income levels, broadband access paved the way to education and economic growth.
• Even after the telephone company made DSL available, broadband is still not available in much of Queen City, TX.
• N.E.T.W.I. applied for funding from government sources and private foundations.

Building the Network:

• The N.E.T.W.I. Network is based entirely on open standards and constructed mostly with 'Open Source' software. Volunteers have coordinated and deployed the network across the two cities, keeping costs extremely low.
• N.E.T.W.I provides free WiFi for network access citywide in Queen City and Atlanta, Texas. The network is supported by membership subscriptions and donations from supporters.
• Group meetings with network users enable the additional sharing of information, community support, and enhance the educational value of the project.
• With the help of several community organizations and individuals, N.E.T.W.I has refurbished over 50 old PC's for distribution to 'at risk' youth in the community.
• N.E.T.W.I has built relationships with municipalities, community organizations, businesses, and individuals with focus on vision of "Ubiquitous Broadband."

Visit NEWTI's website!

Contact NEWTI:

Lynn Jones

PO Box 915

Queen City, Texas 75572

(903) 796-0227

info@netwi.org