San José Community Broadband

To close the digital divide, the city of San José decided to expand their free Wi-Fi to residents in the low-income areas as well as downtown visitors. By leveraging city-owned assets and their current existing wireless network, San José and their technology partner, SmartWAVE, constructed a free outdoor Wi-Fi network that flowed from public schools, libraries, and community centers into the neighborhoods.

SmartWAVE installed hundreds of RUCKUS access points (APs) on street lights, traffic lights, and city buildings to extend the indoor fiber Wi-Fi network into the communities. By deploying RUCKUS outdoor APs, which feature patented technology that transmits the strongest signals possible without impeding transmissions within the rest of the network, SmartWAVE was able to build a free public Wi-Fi network for San José that delivers the fastest speeds in America.