The village presidents that make up the Barrington Area Council of Governments have agreed to work together on a proposal for a wireless communications network in the Barrington area.
The system, proposed by Metricom Inc. of Los Gatos, Calif., would give users of laptop, palmtop and desktop computers access to its network and the Internet through the use of wireless modems.
Metricom Regional Manager Bill Stephens said the system would allow schools not properly wired for Internet access, as well as business people, real estate agents, building inspectors and others, to have unlimited use of the network from anywhere in the service area, including a moving car, for a flat monthly rate.
The system would operate through a number of shoe-box size receivers with 22-inch antennas attached to light and utility poles, eliminating the need for cellular towers, according to Stephens. Metricom typically would place three to seven of the devices in a square-mile area on existing poles or tall signs.
Stephens said Metricom is contacting all 216 municipalities in the Chicago area to obtain permission to place its devices on poles in each community’s rights of way. Stephens said he hopes enough agreements will be reached by April 1999, to launch the network.
Metricom provides the service in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and parts of Los Angeles, Stephens said. New systems are planned for Chicago and nine other cities.
BACOG Chairman George Larrain said that though each village would have to enter into its own agreement with Metricom, their administrative staffs could work together on placing the devices across the 90-square-mile Barrington area.
The seven communities that make up the council are Barrington, Barrington Hills, Deer Park, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington and Tower Lakes.
