TFA-Wireless 

TFA-Wireless is a high speed wireless Internet service that is part of the Technology For All (TFA) research and innovation strategy that uses technology as a tool to empower low-income and under resourced communities.

The initial service area for TFA-Wireless covers approximately two square miles of the Pecan Park neighborhood in Houston's East End. The service area is bordered by Griggs Road on the northwest, Lawndale Street and State Highway 225 on the northeast, Loop 610 on the southeast and I-45 South to the southwest.

Any resident of Pecan Park with wireless knowledge or who attends an orientation class at TFA's community technology center at Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, 2220 Broadway may be eligible to receive free or reduced-rate Internet services from TFA-Wireless.

The TFA-Wireless network is a collaborative project designed and built by Rice University faculty and students in the Rice Network Group , a research group within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The lead scientist on the project is Professor Ed Knightly , Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Professor of Computer Science. Joseph Camp , a 2009 Rice University Ph.D. graduate (now assistant professor at SMU), initially provided direct guidance for the project and assisted in writing several journal articles on the project.  Click here for more information on the TFA - Rice Wireless Mesh.

The Houston Public Library is also collaborating on the project. Its Melcher Branch library is centrally located in the Pecan Park neighborhood and was the ideal site for a TFA-Wireless network access point.  In reviewing the network plans, library officials immediately recognized the benefit that the network would provide their patrons, who can now log in from Melcher's wireless computers.

For more information, see the FAQs or contact:

Nell Warnes, Nell.Warnes@techforall.org TFA-Wireless project manager at 713.454.6420

Jim Forrest, Jim.Forrest@techforall.org  TFA Managing Director at 713.454.6413

Journal Article - "Measurement Driven Deployment of a Two-Tier Urban Mesh Access Network"

Technology For All
2220 Broadway - Houston, Texas 77012
713.454.6400


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