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Municipalities try to build their business plans around wireless access
By Larry Hendrick | September 21, 2006
The biggest challenge for deploying any Internet access, wired or wireless, is profit. A ROI (return on investment) is a critical part of any business plan, but today, that seems “beside the point” for many businesses.
With cities working to compete against cities for businesses to locate or expand in their area, affordable Internet seems to be the “hot ticket” item for the day. In days past, other items were the “must have” items, but the secret weapon is ever evolving and always elusive.
This article covers much of the same ground as others have, but includes a few excellent observations worth thinking about.
Municipalities try to build their business plans around wireless access
Because WiFi operates in unregulated spectrum, and city networks aren’t monopolies, other companies—and publicly owned systems—must still compete in the market, a challenge where low-income residents get monthly service for $10 or even free, and others might only pay $20. “They’ll have to work that price against what others are charging,” Titch said. “They can’t offer free service to everybody and expect a workable system.”
And in today’s rush to build muni WiFi networks, the workable system is the most utopian system of all.
Topics: Business, Technology, WiFi |
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:17 am
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