About Connect Akron
Connect Akron will provide an enhanced public safety network and open community wireless access in 10 square miles of Akron, including key business districts throughout the city. Connect Akron is a project of OneCommunity, a nonprofit technology organization dedicated to fostering economic and civic progress through innovative and collaborative applications of information technology.
Goals
Connect Akron aims to level the playing field for the underserved and provide the community added mobility to services that can respond to community need - be it for healthcare, government services, public safety, or other human services. The network can connect Akron’s public safety forces and enable applications such as streaming video from ambulances so that emergency room doctors can direct patient care. Additionally, Connect Akron will allow organizations in the new biomedical corridor to deliver innovative medical technology applications as well as to enhance their ability to communicate. Connect Akron will leverage high-value software applications to enhance government, health care, education, and other community services.
How It Will Work
A cooperative communication infrastructure will create a “cloud” of broadband Internet access over the area that may be used by anyone with a computer and wireless capability. Akron subscribers will enjoy a robust connection, from 5 -10Mb/s. All wireless links in the network will be secured using encryption, offering a solid level of security.
Location
The wireless project’s footprint will include all of downtown Akron with its 31,000 employees, plus the major medical centers, and includes the Urban League to the South, Portage Path School of Technology to the West, the North Hill Library to the North, and Goodyear to the East. The network will also include the Airport Industrial Park on Triplett Blvd. as well as the neighborhood business districts of Kenmore, Firestone Park, and Sand Run.
Potential for Community Programming
Once the infrastructure of Connect Akron is in place, collaborative programs will provide computers for many people presently without access, so that the underserved populations can begin to reap the benefit of wireless potential.
Newsletter Registration
Want to learn more about computers and the Internet? Check out OneCommunity's Connect Your Community program, managed by the Akron Urban League in our community. Classes are going on at convenient locations all across Akron.