Chaska.net, a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) owned and operated by the city of Chaska, Minn., will use Tropos equipment to deploy a Wi-Fi mesh network across the entire 16 square miles of the city. The network will provide users with ubiquitous broadband (1 Mbps symmetrical) coverage and unlimited mobility anywhere within the city limits.
The city’s Chaska.net, formed five years ago to provide broadband services to the educational institutions of Chaska, worked closely with the city council and city manager in developing the wireless broadband initiative. Chaska.net plans to offer the 18,000 residents and 7,500 households of the city with high-speed access for the fee of $15.99/month. In addition, chaska.net will provide in-vehicle broadband services to the officers of the Chaska Police Department; this service will provide field officers access to rich content, headquarters-quality applications previously unavailable outside of the precinct. The municipal workers of Chaska, such as building inspectors and public works employees, will also be equipped with Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptop computers and PDAs. The end result will be a city workforce with unprecedented access to critical information in the field, increasing productivity and making the community safer as a whole.