Oregon lays claim to world's largest Wi-Fi network
The world's largest Wi-Fi network can be found not in a major city but in the hinterlands of Oregon, where some towns don't even have traffic lights. The network, which was built by Iranian immigrant Fred Ziari for $5 million and is free to the general public, blankets the region's high desert landscape with about 700 square miles of wireless connectivity. Ziari is recouping the cost of the network by selling Internet access to municipalities, and to businesses such as farms. Wired/Associated Press (10/2005)