Mexico City Mayor Mercelo Elbrad has pushed water and power shortage issues aside to push his new free city-wide wifi initiative. Evidently, this new mayor sees high-speed municipal wireless service as a higher priority than basic services like water and power. Well, whatever, the 8 million thirsty and shower-deprived citizens of Mexico City can still enjoy always-on connectivity to their favorite websites. That is, unless there’s a power outage.
China’s ZTE Corp. has inked a deal with Elbrad to provide the wireless network for the city. Network completion is slated for 2008. Part of the wifi initiative includes 4,000 closed-circuit television cameras that will be linked to the wifi network.