On Friday morning, Wireless Ypsi passed 5,000 users and overtook the country of Cyprus to become the SIXTH largest Meraki wireless network in the world. Wireless Ypsi trails only the original San Francisco Meraki network as well as Hawaii, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Boston. Seeing as Ypsilanti is not as densely populated, it’s unlikely that we will break the top five.

Wireless Ypsi’s pseudo-moment of fame came exactly seven months after launching the beta of the network and six months after going public. One could say that “5,000 unique users is more people than will [BLANK] in Ypsilanti,” but that would be even more self-aggrandizing than writing about the milestone on a blog. Needless to say, Wireless Ypsi still has a ways to go. The Depot Town CDC is interested in a complete build-out of Frog Island and Riverside Parks. There is still hope the Ypsilanti Housing Commission will call and ask about partnership opportunities.

As always, anyone interested in helping expand the network should contact me.

Finally, a few quick facts about our friends in Cyprus:

Cyprus was originally a British Colony. It gained its independence in 1960.

Cyprus is the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite.

Cyprus is the size of Connecticut.

The official national anthem of Cyprus is “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams. It was adopted in January 1992 due to the popularity of Kevin Costner’s “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” movie.

Citrus and potatoes constitue the principal exports of Cyprus.

Ronald Schlicher is the US Ambassador to Cyprus.