Core of downtown Bellevue to get free wireless Web access

The core of downtown Bellevue will be getting free wireless Internet access in the next few weeks.

Workers this week are installing 28 wireless boxes on street lights and utility poles to provide Web access in a 150-acre "hot zone." The coverage area stretches from Bellevue Square to Meydenbauer Center, between Northeast Fourth and Eighth streets and curving slightly south to include Downtown Park.

The $60,000 installation is part of a six-month pilot project that may become permanent and then eventually expand to provide Wi-Fi access to the entire city, said David Kerr, a city information-technology manager.

Public access to the network, though, probably will be limited to the outdoors. The wireless signal will not enter most buildings and was designed primarily for city workers, such as police officers and building inspectors, to use in the field.

Still, residents and downtown workers will be able to access the Internet for free via laptops in many of the most popular public spaces, such as Downtown Park and the Northeast Sixth Street pedestrian corridor.

"That was the logical place to start" the project, Kerr said.

The network will open to city employees this month and to the public early next month.

The city plans to lease bandwidth to as many as four Internet service providers (ISPs), who then will provide public access. The only company onboard so far is HarborLink, based in Dayton, Ohio.

HarborLink will make money from advertising on its Web site and give 10 percent of its ad revenue to the city, Kerr said.

The Internet companies could decide to expand the network themselves to include indoor locations.

Bellevue is one of several Puget Sound-area cities to offer some level of free Wi-Fi access, including Seattle, Renton, Everett and Federal Way.

The Bellevue City Council will decide in the next few weeks whether to make the project permanent.

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567 or abach@seattletimes.com