Chihuahuan Frontier

Chihuahua City was awarded the third place Ibero American Digital Cities Prize under the Metro Cities category for its Chihuahua Digital program, which offers free wireless Internet to anyone within a 150 square-kilometer area.

Only Puebla, Mexico (first place) and Medellín, Colombia (second) were judged to have a wider range of IT use in the region that includes the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America and Europe.

Under the Chihuahua Digital program, residents can access the Internet wirelessly over a 150 square-kilometer area. The city has an area of about 200 square kilometers.

The network currently consists of 467 hotspots, with up to 6,000 people simultaneously connected at peak hour, usually in the afternoon.

Chihuahua Digital originally was part of an effort to provide the city's patrol car fleet with real-time data streaming capabilities, but eventually it was expanded to meet any kind of connectivity needs of residents.

Planned uses for the newly-installed network includes utility meter wireless reading, GPS services, police surveillance and Internet access at schools.

The Metro Cities category covers cities of more than 750,000. Prizes were also awarded under a Medium-Sized Cities and Small Cities categories.

The recognition was handed to Chihuahua City Mayor Carlos Borruel Baquera during the 10th Anual Digital Cities Meeting, organized by the Spain-based Ibero American Digital Cities Network.

Representatives from more than 280 Mexican municipalities and 15 countries attended the ceremony.