Space Needle to be converted to WiFi antenna

By at 9:31 am Thursday, May 5

Three ISPs companies, including the ISP Speakeasy, have teamed up to mount a Wi-Max (citywide WiFi) antenna on top of Seattle's white-elephant Space Needle, a fading futuristic building that is to be put to a cutting-edge futuristic use.

Quinn Norton first observed that looking at some big weird chunk of metal (say, a Stanford radio-telescope) and saying "That would make a great WiFi antenna" is the twenty-first century equivalent of pointing at every hollow object and opining "that would make a great bong."

I'm sure I'm not the only geek to step through Seattle, look up and say, "Goddown that Space Needle would sure make a great WiFi antenna."

Antennas and radio equipment are being installed 605 feet up at the top of the Space Needle and in four other spots around the city. It'll beam wireless Internet signals over a 5-mile square mile area of Seattle.
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Cory Doctorow

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