The State College Borough Council is excited about the prospect of Dan Myers, chief executive officer and president of getwireless.net, taking State College and the Penn State campus wireless.

Council member Elizabeth Goreham said she liked that there appeared to be at least one company very interested in making the entire town wireless.

"I think that's a very positive attraction for business and homeowners here, and I like [Myers'] enthusiasm," she said. "It's very attractive to have a local provider, a local business, that's wonderful."

She also said she would love to work things out with the network so State College residents can have free wireless access at certain places in town.

"I would love to offer that to our citizens," she said.

Myers said the monthly wireless Internet packages currently offered start at $14.95 a month.

She also said it's too early to tell who getwireless.net's competition might be, and that the borough is still learning about wireless technology.

"There is a lot of things to be worked out, but we are off to a good start. I'm pleased with Myers' enthusiasm and effort so far," she said.

Council President Cathy Dauler said currently the borough has a plan to send out request proposals for other interested parties.

"The plan had always been to solicit proposals from a variety of interested businesses," she said.

She added the borough is still very much in the learning stages regarding the wireless project, it seems Myers has made a large investment in the project so far.

Council member Ron Filippelli said he thought Myers' presentation was excellent.

"I think the borough is very interested in moving forward on the wireless project," Filippelli said. "I think Myers will be a major factor. He already has a network, he is already up and running and operating in State College, and I thought [his presentation] was positive. The borough is moving forward on the wireless project as we speak."

Council member Tom Daubert said he was also pleased with what Myers had to say.

"He presented himself well; I hope that he will cover the whole borough, not just downtown and campus, and that he will be able to keep the costs to users down," Daubert said.

He also said he thought it was a positive thing that Myers is from State College and has business experience in the area.

Myers said it would be easy for students to obtain access from getwireless.net, because they would only need a wireless card for their computer as well as a client adapter to send out the signal in some cases.

Myers also said he would love to expand the network to all of the Penn State campus and that the council very interested in working with Penn State.

"We want to offer service across the Penn State campus, to visitors as well as faculty, staff and students," Myers said. He added that he is so interested in providing a network for campus that he would "pay to build service across campus."

His goal is to cover the entire downtown with wireless Internet so that anyone could take their computer around town and pick up the wireless signal.

Dauler said the council would be discussing this issue further at its Oct. 9 work session.