ALTAMONT — By the summer, residents of two local areas could have access to high-speed wireless Internet.
Plans are in the works to bring the service to the village of Altamont and the hamlet of Rensselaerville. Altamont mayor James Gaughan said he wants to start by "lighting up" Orsini Park, in the village center.
"That’s step one in my long-range plan," Gaughan said. He hopes to expand the service from the park to the whole village, he said.
"That would be my ultimate goal, to become a wireless village, which would be, to my knowledge, the first in New York State to do this," Gaughan said.

According to Gaughan’s plan, the village would place a wireless router at the gazebo in the middle of the park. Nearby computer users, equipped with wireless cards, could freely access the broadband signal.

Judith Wines, director of the Altamont Library, is collaborating with Gaughan on the plan. The library is moving from the Key Bank building on Park Street, which borders Orsini Park on one side, to the old train station which borders it on the other.
"It makes a lot of sense for us to be involved," Wines said. "We’re always psyched to support something that helps connect people to information."

The library started broadcasting wireless Internet inside its building last fall, shortly after Wines came on. It has eased competition for the library’s four computer workstations, said Wines, who teaches computer courses at the library.
Also, she said, "It’s so convenient. If you have files on your laptop, you don’t have to transfer them."

Free wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi, is starting to crop up in municipalities across the nation, offered by governments, private organizations, or a partnership of both. Often, it’s only located in downtown areas.

On Monday, St. Cloud, Fla., a 15-square-mile city, declared itself the first to offer free access city-wide. Philadelphia is constructing a network to cover its 135 square miles and Chicago is considering plans to fill in the blanks between existing Wi-Fi hotspots at coffee shops and libraries.
Gaughan said Wi-Fi, in one-square-mile Altamont, will attract "clean energy" technology business and young professionals to the mostly residential village.
"Just think of the possibilities," he said. "It gives us a foot up."

As for the cost, Gaughan is hoping it will be nothing. The village is working with the Time-Warner cable company to provide access in the park and there is grant money available for a possible village-wide project, Gaughan said.
Gaughan said he intends to "light up the park" by June.

Rensselaerville

In Rensselaerville, the plan is a little different. Instead of the town government, the project is being spearheaded by the Rensselaerville Library and the Rensselaerville Institute, a think tank and conference center located just outside the hamlet. And, the service will not be free.

Still, it’s an improvement over the current Internet options. Time-Warner’s digital cable lines don’t stretch to remote Rensselaerville, and Verizon, the phone company, does not offer its DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service there. That leaves residents with sluggish dial-up or pricey satellite service.

For access to the new wireless system, users will be charged $39.99 per month, said Christopher Brozek , network administrator for the Rensselaerville Institute.
"We were seeking a reasonably-priced option," Brozek said. "We thought that going with a wireless system would do that."

About a year ago, Brozek said, he had the idea of sharing the institute’s excess bandwidth on its super-high-speed T1 line with the town library. On weekends and in the evenings, Brozek explained, the institute doesn’t make full use of its line.

Very soon in his discussions with library Director Rebecca Lubin, Brozek said, the idea evolved into a full-scale project to bring broadband to the hamlet. Logical Net, a Schenectady-based Internet service provider, joined the effort.
"The plan is, they will build out the actual infrastructure and make the system," Brozek said.

The library will have its own T1 line, which will be routed to and broadcast from various points in the hamlet.

The service should start sometime this spring, Brozek said.
"We’ve had a lot of interested people asking, ‘When is it going to be available"" Brozek said.

Lubin has been trying to get high-speed Internet at the small Rensselaerville Library for the past five years, she said.
"The library was really running out of alternatives," Lubin said.

Its current access is on a 56k frame-to-frame relay from the Upper-Hudson Library System. The slow speed of the connection prohibits the library from automating its circulation with Upper-Hudson, Lubin said.
"It’s really pointless to automate our collection until we have broadband," she said.

In addition, she said, Rensselaerville patrons don’t have access to certain system-wide features, like downloadable audio books.

The new wireless system will solve that problem at a fraction of the cost of the library’s buying its own T1 line. The library will have to pay for the installation of some of the equipment, Lubin said, but she has applied to state Senator Neil Breslin’s office for funding.
"We’re very happy that we’ve been able to partner with the Rensselaerville Institute and find Logical Net," Lubin said. "For rural areas, it seems like wireless is the real way to go."