BLOWING ROCK, N.C.,None — Blowing Rock is regarded by some as an old-fashioned town, and others complain that it is behind the times when it comes to things such as complete cell phone coverage.
In one regard, however, the village stepped firmly into the 21st century this week.
Through a partnership with the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce and Blue Ridge Mountain Club (formerly Reynolds Blue Ridge), downtown Blowing Rock gained access to free Wi-Fi service. The service will enable owners of laptop computers, smart phones and other electronic devices to access the Internet to surf the web, download images and music or to connect with their email providers.
"This new service will be available from Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church to Knights on Main, from the back of Blowing Rock Memorial Park to the intersection of Sunset Drive and Highway 321," said Jim Pitts, a spokesperson for Blue Ridge Mountain Club.
Blue Ridge Mountain Club held a public reception at The Inn at Ragged Gardens in Blowing Rock on Wednesday to announce both the new Wi-Fi service and the company's name change from Reynolds Blue Ridge.
Blue Ridge Mountain Club reportedly spent more than $17,000 for equipment and hardware to make Wi-Fi available to the public in Blowing Rock.
During Wednesday's reception, Pitts pointed to a building on Main Street and showed guests where one of the receivers was located on top of a building. It looked like a five-gallon white metal container that most people would never notice unless it was pointed out to them.
"Free Wi-Fi for downtown Blowing Rock is something we explored with a local technology company about six years ago, but it never panned out," said Charles Hardin, director of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce.
Hardin said that on a recent trip to Bryson City he discovered that it had free Wi-Fi and that led him to seriously rethink its possibilities for Blowing Rock.
With the help of Leah England, wife of Blue Ridge Mountain Club sales manager Chris England, Hardin established a partnership with the mountain property to make the vision a reality.
Users of the free Wi-Fi service are required to register to use it by entering their name, email address and zip code. They must also agree to a "terms and conditions" clause to gain access to the service. Providing that information and agreeing to those terms will allow the user to be signed in for three days. After that they may re-register for three additional days.
Pitts stated that the new service was not set up to be a replacement for current Internet service utilized by downtown Blowing Rock businesses.
WSOC
