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Jose Robertson in Southern California from Pennsylvania on business, stopped in the Encinitas' Starbucks Coffee in the Lumberyard shopping center, to use the wireless "hotspot" to take care of some business.
Don Boomer
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ENCINITAS ---- A business booster group is negotiating to bring wireless Internet service to the city's century-old commercial district. The Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association and its executive director, Peder Norby, are in talks with several firms that install and maintain so-called wireless fidelity, or "Wi-Fi" networks.

At a breakfast meeting last week, Norby told association members the network could be activated within a month. Once it is, computer users will be able to connect to the Internet from sidewalk cafes, patios, offices, homes or anywhere else that falls beneath what Norby called the "wireless umbrella."

"The next step in the evolution of the Internet is wireless," Norby said.

Since 1988, the MainStreet group has labored to advance the economic vitality of the downtown district by hosting events, lobbying City Hall for business-friendly policies, or, in this case, by working to activate downtown Encinitas as a wireless "hot spot."

The wireless technology employs radio waves to transmit a high-speed Internet connection that multiple computers can share. Garage-door openers, cordless telephones, baby monitors and other devices employ the same, unrestricted frequency.

Wi-Fi "hot spots" are popping up everywhere. Coffee shops and many major airports and hotels offer the service.

Last month, officials in Spokane, Wash., activated a 100-block wireless network.

"The Spokane HotZone gives us a distinct advantage over other communities that aren't using these new technologies as an economic development tool," Mayor James West said in a statement posted on his city's Web site.

Last year, the 51,000-resident city of Cerritos installed an 8.6-square-mile network. High-speed Internet access had been scarce in the city 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles because so-called Digital Subscriber Line ---- DSL ---- and cable Internet hookups were unavailable.

In North County, the sprawling San Elijo Hills subdivision in San Marcos sits beneath a wireless umbrella.

Wireless technology is well-suited for downtown Encinitas, Norby said, because the district is tightly clustered with 250 businesses, 150 offices and 1,500 residents working and living within a seven-block stretch.

Norby would not identify the companies he is negotiating with because he has not yet signed a contract.

He did offer these details to guests at the MainStreet Mornings breakfast meeting:

The network would cover an area stretching from Encinitas Boulevard to K Street, with Vulcan Avenue and Third Street as east and west boundaries. The networks can be expanded by installing additional nodes on the rooftops of buildings.

Business and residential subscribers could gain access to the service for about $29 a month.

Anyone within the coverage area could purchase smaller increments of time on the wireless network. That kind of flexibility is attractive for vacationers, Norby said.

"You can't get DSL or Cable (Internet) for one week," he said. "With Wi-Fi, you can subscribe for an hour, a week, a day, a month."

A user would provide his or her credit card information to purchase time. Other payment options would be available depending upon use.

To gain access to the service, consumers would need antennas for their computers. The antennas are available with most portable computers.

Keg-shaped nodes standing about 18 inches tall would radiate the Internet connection signal from the tops of buildings. At the outset, eight nodes would be positioned in a cross-hatched, zipper pattern on either side of South Coast Highway 101. A single node has a range of about 200 yards.

Wi-Fi signals would travel easily through the plaster and wood walls common in downtown Encinitas. Steel-framed buildings can interfere with the transmissions.

Patios and decks could and would become work spaces, an attractive thought given Encinitas' balmy climate, Norby said.

The MainStreet group's role would be to encourage a private company to install its equipment in Encinitas and to help advertise the service, Norby said. Any profits would cycle right back to consumers in the form of lower rates or even periods when users could enjoy free Internet connections. Norby already has come up with a name for such an offering: "Wi-Fi Wednesdays."

Seven days a week, customers bring laptop computers to Leucadia Pizzeria, where no Internet connections are available, manager Cory Edelmann said last week.

A wireless network would provide a cheaper and easier way to connect computers at an upstairs office to those in the restaurant itself, he said, but customers also would benefit.

"Having that accessibility hopefully would bring more people into the restaurant," he said.

Wireless Internet technology is slowly spreading across the country and, by and large, customers are satisfied with the service, said Lee Biddle, a consumer advocate with San Diego-based Utility Consumers Action Network.

"I definitely see Encinitas being on the cutting edge of a trend in deploying a system like this," Biddle said. "It could be a great benefit to the businesses."

The technology also carries risks, said Beth Givens, director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego consumer group.

Sophisticated hackers can intercept data beamed through the airwaves using a device called a sniffer.

That means credit card and other personal information can be vulnerable.

"These are things Encinitas business owners and anyone who's sipping their latte needs to be concerned about," Givens said.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.