Rogers Wilson can see two Sears Towers from the roof of his North Lawndale apartment. Downtown is the angular and dark anchor of Chicago's skyline, the skyscraper pictured on every postcard. Closer to Wilson's apartment, at the corner of Arthington and Homan Avenues, is a red-brick clock tower that was once part of the Sears office complex on the West Side.

In the early '70s, the company started leaving North Lawndale, moving their offices to downtown and the suburbs. The tower became yet another underused building in one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods.

But Wilson and a group of residents are making the tower important again, using it as the central broadcasting point for a low-cost, high-speed wireless internet cloud. The network is allowing residents to get online without the big providers of high-speed internet service, such as SBC and Comcast, and the costs those companies charge for service.

The Wireless Community Network combines innovative technology with a community-driven support system and seeks to eliminate a major aspect of the digital divide--the lack of high speed internet for low-income people.

The network uses a mesh network model. An internet connection at the tower broadcasts to antennas installed on the roofs of users throughout the neighborhood. The antennas can "talk" to each other: if one goes down due to a power outage, for example, the antenna automatically seeks out the nearest active connection to allow the household to stay online. Since the wireless cloud is shared among all its users, costs to operate the network can be spread out as more people sign up.

So far, 30 households have signed up for the network and are online. According to Nicole Friedman, manager of the wireless project for the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), that number doesn't include all the people catching access through wireless connections where the cloud is available. (Note: CNT is a Wicker Park-based neighborhood advocacy organization that seeks to build sustainable communities. They run car-sharing programs and an energy cooperative, among other programs. They are deploying community wireless with groups in areas such as Pilsen, Elgin and Frankfort as well as Lawndale.)

Friedman says the project was originally started as a cheaper way to conduct CNT's business. "We were using the technology in our office to connect to a satellite office," explains Friedman. "It worked and it was cheap; we were able to save money. We thought it would it be cool to do on a community level."

In Lawndale, CNT joined with the Neighborhood Technology Resource Center to conduct surveys about computer and internet usage in the community. Wilson and other volunteers canvassed the area from the Sears complex north to Interstate 290, and found that close to 50 percent of respondents owned a computer. Few, however, had access to high-speed internet.

"People viewed broadband as an unaffordable necessity and wanted to know how to get it cheaper", explains Friedman.

The wireless network is currently in a pilot phase and is provided for free. CNT estimates it could eventually cost $10 to $15 per month, far less than what the big providers charge. A SBC/Yahoo DSL connection, for example, starts at a $26.95 per month. Comcast offers broadband for $19.99 per month---but only for the first six months. Wilson says he's seen people who "lucked out" by finding special prices from the big providers, only to find the costs prohibitive once the special price ended.

"You'd be surprised at how many people want service," says Wilson. "But they get afraid they can't keep up with the price of it. Everybody I hook up turns into a family member because they love it so much...I'll support anything to close the digital divide; most people don't know how large the gap is."

Wilson, a soft-spoken 31-year-old with four kids, has lived in the area for most of his life. He trained in telecommunications and volunteered on the wireless projects for six months before taking a job with CNT. Wilson helps install wireless antennas on residents' roofs to extend the network and shows residents how to use the system. He provides technical support, frequently making house calls to answer questions. Wilson adds that everybody in the neighborhood has his phone number.

"Older people come to me and say, 'We get to learn about computers for free?' They think it's magic," says Wilson. "They order groceries and do Google searches. The teenagers do online classes. The network is giving people greater opportunities to be entrepreneurs.

"It cuts through the bureaucracy of business," Wilson explained on a recent Saturday. For Wilson, the wireless network helps poor communities get one step closer to connecting with the rest of the world.

ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE

In Chicago, the digital divide--a catchall term that covers the gap in access to everything from the latest technologies to basic telephone service--matches up to longstanding race and class inequalities. A US Department of Commerce study found that 86 percent of Illinois households earning less than $15,000 per year do not own a computer and 90 percent don't have internet access at home. While the city's public library system provides free access on computers over a library-operated wireless network, there are few private providers offering services affordable to residents of Lawndale; in a typical block, almost two-thirds of residents reported earning $15,000 or less in the 2000 Census.

Some groups, like the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide, a coalition of religious leaders, have called lack of access to broadband digital redlining. Michael Maranda, head of the not-for-profit Association for Community Networking, sees community wireless as a model that could work for a wide range of communities. He says he currently uses a SBC DSL connection from his home, but would like to create a wireless network in his Hyde Park neighborhood.

"[Community wireless] is not the only model, but in terms of technology, it's the most innovative," Maranda says. "They're actually deploying a mesh network and their costs are very low per user. They project a few dollars a month if you had a T-1 line and you were broadcasting to a community."

Maranda says the wireless projects, including the Champaign-Urbana Wireless Internet Network, or CuWin, place Illinois on the cutting edge of community networking. CuWin, led by University of Illinois graduate student and technology organizer Sascha Meinrath, first developed the tools for deployment of this type of network.

Meinrath says community wireless cuts directly against the corporate model of connection. "Their business models say if you have a dozen houses, you get every house to buy a connection and spend 50 bucks a month to get internet," he says. "With us, if there are 12 houses, buy two connections and share the costs. That's a sixth of the cost. We're creating a low cost do-it-yourself sort of tool."

Meinrath roots wireless community networks in the open source technology and computing movement. Rather than be proprietary, closed to public access, and copyrighted, open source allows the users to improve and critique the system. For Meinrath, stakes are high for communities getting connected. He sees broadband as a basic need, akin to sewers or lights.

Increasing numbers of town and cities across the country agree. More have also been jumping into the mix, drawing up plans to connect residents and business through wireless networks. In a recent policy paper, the Illinois Municipal Utility Association (IMUA), a group that represents publicly-operated water, electric and other utilities around the state, said that cities must have the ability to offer broadband services to ensure their economic futures.

"Without high-speed telecommunications, just as without good air service or a nearby interstate, industry will simply bypass a community," the paper argued.

IMUA also made a legal case for municipally-offered broadband. In other states, legal and legislative fights about municipal broadband have resulted in bans on such service. Philadelphia's plan to wire itself has garnered much attention from the media and ire from the telecom companies. Legislation in Pennsylvania backed by the big providers now makes it illegal for any city besides Philadelphia to deploy municipal service.

This spring, Illinois will consider new legislation to govern state telecommunications policy. Elgin-based Senator Steve Rauschenberger already introduced a bill - Senate Bill 0499 to be exact - that would make municipal service illegal. Chicago's City Council members have been paying attention. As of press time, they were expected to pass an ordinance to study deployment of a municipally-run network before Springfield could legislate otherwise, according to reports in the daily papers.

A municipal ban would not outlaw community wireless networks. But advocates are nonetheless fuming at the possibility, from the standpoint that limiting options for broadband access will leave underserved communities with fewer choices in terms of cost and access.

"If the municipal ban bill passes, it's going to be another kick in the face to poor communities," says Wilson.

Meinrath agreed, comparing current legislation which bans municipal-derived internet to the land giveaways to railroads a century ago. He sees hybrid systems between community and municipal networks as the best method for low-cost, ubiquitous access. Legislation banning municipal service would be a "total giveaway," says Meinrath.

"It basically provides for no competition, no way for a community to take control," adds Meinrath. "The existing incumbent provider would have veto power over competition."