Newark 3.0

This week the City of Newark announced some exciting things that will create a thriving tech scene - Newark 3.0!

Community leaders, Mayor Baraka, Acting Governor Guadagno, Audible.com's CEO Don Katz and others will form Newark Venture Partners, who will manage an early-stage investment fund that will provide capital as well as sophisticated company-building services and a collaborative state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot accelerator workspace with ultra-high bandwidth access to the Internet for innovative tech start-ups. The accelerator’s 1 Washington Park location houses the headquarters of Audible and its Newark-based employees as well as the Rutgers University Business School, which is providing rent-free access to the facility, now being readied for construction.

Also unveiled was downtown Newark’s new Firebolt Wi-Fi, the fastest outdoor network of its kind in the country.  Currently from Broad and Market to 1 Washington Park including parks and Halsey Street in between, free for all. Built by the Military Park Partnership, and funded by Audible, Prudential Financial, Rutgers Newark, and NJIT, the Firebolt Wi-Fi system covers a two-linear-mile stretch of downtown Newark.  The network which has already been used by more than 50,000 people prior to announcement is capable of delivering hundreds of megabits per second download speeds to client devices. The network will grow along South Orange Ave and is also available at several community recreation centers and housing authority locations in the city’s neighborhoods.