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TMC Net Looks at Municipal WiFi Projects in the U.S.
By Larry Hendrick | February 25, 2007
TMC Net has published a three-part series on municipal WiFi projects that are a must read for anyone interested in the developments in this arena. They interviewed several experts and looked at every angle affected by the sudden rush to create these projects.
With the recent Houston, Texas project award to Earthlink (still has to have council approval), I am interested in the method of deployment and the business model eventually implemented. If you take the experts opinions and apply it to the Houston model, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in a successful implementation.
Below is a small sample of each part of the articles to give an idea of what each part is about. It will take a few minutes to read all three parts, but I recommend you do so.
Municipal WiFi Projects in the U.S. - Part 1 of 3
Within those two broad models, many variations have emerged. From the wideshot view, it appears that the most successful WiFi projects have employed a hybrid approach to funding, rather than putting all the eggs in one basket. And keeping things in the black need not be an either-or proposition; subscriber fees and advertising revenues are other ways to raise funds. Depending on whom you ask, the word “free” in association with “muni WiFi network” can raise some hackles. In some cases, cities may be a bit too eager to get something for nothing, by asking a provider to build and maintain a network free of charge.
Municipal WiFi Projects in the U.S. - Part 2 of 3
There does seem to be a sort of WiFi fever infecting city governments in the U.S.—a fever that Settles has referred to variously as “a lemming effect” and “the Sacramento Syndrome.” Hanley went so far as to say, only half-jokingly, that in the U.S. today a mayor can’t get re-elected without a WiFi strategy.
The enthusiasm for WiFi definitely does seem to be contagious, but in some cases it could be resulting in short-sighted decisions regarding specs of the network and who controls it.
Municipal WiFi Projects in the U.S. - Part 3 of 3
When asked about common pitfalls cities fall into when planning WiFi networks, bandwidth made Vos’ shortlist.”One pitfall I see is cities not pushing for higher bandwidths,” she said. Most seem stuck at 1 Mbps, which is too slow to deliver some services.
Why should this be? As usual, it comes down to money.
“The price of bandwidth in the United States is much higher than in Japan,” she said. The cost of backhaul seems a likely reason why cities aren’t looking at faster speeds.