Although still years from realization, free, citywide wireless is moving closer to reality in Ames.

Approximately 15 people attended the Story County Free Wireless Project’s meeting Saturday morning at the Ames Public Library.

Mark Kassis, co-owner of Lucullan’s Restaurant, 400 Main St., is spearheading the project. Kassis said his ideas on Ames and the city’s connectivity to the Internet date back to 1990.

“When the Internet was this new, unfathomable thing, I went to the city manager saying that the future of this city would be [improved] by free access to the Internet. He hardly knew what the Internet was,” Kassis said.

Wireless access in the city could be used to promote companies relocating to Ames and other kinds of economic development.

“It lets companies know the city’s economically viable. We need to think of the future of digital connections, and companies aren’t going to come to Ames, Iowa, if we’re not a digital city,” he said.

Richard Pulley, area director of operations for Mediacom, said the community wireless idea is already being used in Marshalltown.

The initial idea of free public wireless across the city was changed into a partnership with Mediacom, Pulley said. Twenty blocks of downtown are covered by the free wireless access, and Mediacom is providing fee-based service through the rest of the city.

Kassis said the effort may even be used as another cooperation for “One Community” efforts between Iowa State and Ames.

“This partnership could bring together the townies and university people,” he said, “and that’s also part of my vision.”

Earlier this month, the group made a proposal to the City of Ames for money in the 2005-2006 budget to perform a feasibility study. This study is the first step toward the group’s plans for citywide wireless.

If political, economic and technical issues can be resolved, the group could go to Ames voters in the 2006-2007 election season to become a publicly funded utility to provide wireless access to Ames. Alternatively, Ames could also contract with a private company for high-speed service, as Marshalltown has.

The demand for broadband may be there, Kassis said.

Information presented at the meeting listed 2,000 active wireless access points over the city, but very few of those connections are open to the public without registration.

If the city chooses to follow a plan similar to Marshalltown’s, it is likely the Campustown and downtown areas would remain free.

Noah Wiese, Government of the Student Body senator for the Campustown area and graduate in material science and engineering, said he believed municipal access was one of the things that would improve the district without “trying to change it,” but said GSB or student funding of the project was still a sketchy issue.

“As far as funding goes, I’m not sure exactly what we can do,” Wiese said. “If we were to assist in funding the project, as far as I know, it would need to be through a student group of some kind.”

In recent weeks, GSB has advocated free wireless as a way to improve the Campustown area, although no student group currently exists for that purpose.

Other obstacles stand in the way of connectivity.

Pulley said the ISU campus emits a large cloud of interference.

During Saturday’s meeting, Kassis said it could take as long as two years to work around issues like the interference.

“At our last meeting, we had people ready to build the network; they were going out and finding places to put the wireless transmitters,” he said. “But building something like this takes time, money and [city approval].”

For some communities larger than Ames or Marshalltown, like San Francisco, funding the wireless network doesn’t pose a problem. Google has bid on building San Francisco’s wireless infrastructure and providing service free of charge. If accepted, Google will be studying the usage and the location data and using it to make the overall advertisements.