Not Impressed

Within the last four or five months, Amanda and I learned of Minneapolis’ plan to connect its citizenry by way of a city-sponsored wireless network that was to be implemented by a Twin Cities tech company, USI Wireless.

We’ve both lucked out with wireless during the past few years; our iBooks have been pretty keen detectors of open networks within range of our respective apartments. Despite this, we were excited by the prospect of at-home wireless that was consistently available and circumvented traditional means that require package contracts for cable or DSL or the like.

Amanda decided to give the service a go and signed up for the latter of two options: rent/buy an expensive modem from USI wireless in addition to the cost of service that connects one’s computer to the wireless transmitters in the neighborhood, or log into the system’s “roaming service” by way of her laptop’s internal modem and the company’s website.

So far, I’d give this service a C-. She gets a signal at home but it’s weak – 1 out of a possible 5 bars. This makes for painfully sluggish web browsing and frequent site time-outs.

More lame than dial-up?