Deuce Communications Bringing Free WiFi to Phoenixville

Jeremy Dalton, self-described “hometown kid,” is set on bringing free Internet to his hometown.

The founder of Phoenixville-based Deuce Communications Technologies, Dalton and his firm are poised to establish free WiFi in the downtown business district by late summer before, if their ad model succeeds and they’re able to attract additional investors to the project, spreading to the rest of the borough.

Anyone in the coverage area–which will extend from, roughly, the intersection of Church and Starr streets to the end of Hall St.–will have access to a network with a connection speed of 1.5 Mbps; which is, for point of reference, about 15 times faster than the 100 kbps speed Deuce business consultant Joshua Schricker says he’s measured at Philadelphia International Airport’s hotspot.

Deuce will also offer, for a fee, premium service Internet that Dalton and company maintain is cheaper and about twice as fast as what Comcast and Verizon now offer.

The team frames the project as an accelerant for Phoenixville’s continued growth.

“When we talk to businesses, everybody’s interested in how we can get more people to Phoenixville,”  said Schricker. “And what kind of people do they want to get in? Dual income, no kids, single people in their 20s and 30s. And those people want connectivity.”

“It’s all about connectivity,” added Dalton.

If this all sounds familiar to you, it’s because it probably is. Dalton admits muni-WiFi initially looked set to take off about eight years ago, but stalled because it didn’t quite make sense fiscally or technologically. He cited the city of Philadelphia’s abortive attempt to, in conjunction with Earthlink, effectively turn the city into one giant hotspot. (An initiative that cost Earthlink over $17 million, he added.)

“The technology just wasn’t there,” said Dalton. “They needed a certain amount of access points per square mile, and that just wasn’t feasible.”

He says this time is different though for two reasons: one, he has at his disposal a proprietary technology that makes it less expensive to maintain the infrastructure, and two, he’s added a new marketing component to the model. Dalton doesn’t just envision the free WiFi as a way for Phoenixville to connect to the world, but to itself.

“We decided to focus on things we could do to help emerging communities, and not just be a straight wireless company,” Dalton said.

From a central website that will serve as a landing page for anyone connecting to the network, Dalton said his firm will make available digital historical tours of Phoenixville, enable remote cost-comparison window shopping for its stores, and recast the way visitors to the borough deal with parking.

‘You could drive into town, your wife could pull out her smartphone and, based on information from the parking meters, you could see which lots have open spaces,” Dalton said. “Then at dinner, let’s say your meter is running out of time, you could take out your phone and add time to it without getting up."

And despite all the information that would be changing hands on the free network, security doesn’t appear to be an issue.

“The security on [Deuce’s] Wi-Fi is ten times better than Comcast or Verizon,” acknowledged Phoenixville borough council east ward representative David Gautreau in recent conversation with the Daily Local News.

Though Dalton needed no approval from the borough to move forward with his plan, he’s attempted to forge relationships with its governing bodies with an eye on teaming with them on future projects that would build on Deuce’s infrastructure.

He declined to provide further detail on what these would be.

While Dalton’s vision begins in Phoenixville, it extends beyond it. His plan is to establish the borough’s digital infrastructure, then use it as a prototype to sell other municipalities on the same arrangement. Widespread municipal WiFi, and its eventual successor, the “intelligent community” is inevitable, he says.

“It’s coming,” Dalton said from his Locust Drive office, energy drink in hand. “It’s just a matter of who implements it first.”