“Trash can Wi-Fi Hotspots come to West Louisville”

For the past year, city leaders have been pulling several policy levers to improve Louisville’s Internet access and attract high-speed providers such as Google Fiber.

Metro Council, for instance, approved a pair of measures this month that condense the franchise agreement process and give ultra-fast Internet service providers easier access to utility poles to install their equipment.

“I hope this is the first of another stop to free Wi-Fi in west Louisville,” said Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton. “This opportunity is just too great to not have it everywhere, accessible to everyone.”

Each bin location costs $4,000 and is being paid through philanthropic grants rather than city general funds, according to Ted Smith, the city’s innovation chief.

Rather than connecting to existing infrastructure the Big Belly trash dispensers use batteries powered by the sun.

“We’re really eager now that we’re not bound in every case to what wires we can connect to, to find other places in the community that could benefit these autonomous points,” Smith said.

Asked about the security of these open access points, Smith said the city is using a special firewall system for the Big Belly units to keep users data safe. He said that is consistent with what they are doing at other public spaces such as libraries and community centers.

Last September, the Fischer administration used an $11,000 Bloomberg Philanthropies grant to widen Wi-Fi service at three Russell neighborhood locations such as America’s Finest Filters, 2910 W. Jefferson St., that emits an Internet radius of about 200 feet of coverage.

The city purchased Internet service through August 2016 that Fischer officials say nearly 1,000 people have used more than 100 GB of data.

Smith’s office is looking for additional opportunities to install other access points but the city is still looking for a group or businesses to takeover that contract before the access agreement expires later this year.

“What we’re doing as a city is looking to the community and asking any interested parties who could operate such a network,” Smith said. “Really we do need at some point in time to turn this over to a community-based organization … whoever is going to be a good caretaker of this community resource.”