Council Bluffs rolls out free wifi, plans for celebration tonight

The City of Council Bluffs has teamed up with Google to roll out the Omaha metropolitan area’s first free public wifi. Thanks to a $154,462 grant from the internet giant, Council Bluffs is giving free access to the web to anyone in and around three areas of the city: downtown and 100 Broadway District, Mid…

Free public wifi is available in three areas of Council Bluffs, as shown above, thanks to the financial help of Google. Map provided by Google, labels by Danny Schreiber.

The City of Council Bluffs has teamed up with Google to roll out the Omaha metropolitan area’s first free public wifi. Thanks to a $154,462 grant from the internet giant, Council Bluffs is giving free access to the web to anyone in and around three areas of the city: downtown and 100 Broadway District, Mid America Center and the Harvey Recreational Complex. 

To mark the launch of the wifi, a public celebration will be held in the 100 block of West Broadway from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight, at which attendees can learn more about the service and the collaboration between Google and Council Bluffs – Google has agreed to provide free wifi to the City for three years. There will also be Google product demonstrations along with live music, food and beverages.

“Google is a strong believer in the power of the web, and it’s a honor to be able to support this exciting initiative,” Chris Russell, Google’s Council Bluffs Data Center lead, said in a release on Thursday. “We believe cutting edge technology and internet access is crucial to developing business, creating jobs, and thriving in the 21st century.”

From what I can find using Google, this is the first city-supported free wifi in one of the Silicon Prairie’s major cities – Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City – but with Google’s upcoming fiber implementation in Kansas City, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar roll out there. Google’s first presence in Council Bluffs came in 2009 when it opened a $600 million data center on a 60 acre plot of land on the southern edge of the city.

To see a map of the free wifi in Council Bluffs, visit “Council Bluffs – Google Wireless Project Locations“.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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