Muni WiFi Needs Devices; The Devices Are Here

There have been two very large impediments to the development of Muni WiFi: Few devices, and few good open networks.

We have been then in very much a ‘chicken or egg’ situation — there has been no strong impetus to building muni WiFi networks because not many had such devices, but few had devices in part because who would buy them absent networks?

Well now that we have the iPhone, and they have shipped 500K of them, the pressure will mount. With Nokia (disclosure: the parkwifi network’s sponsor) shipping their NSeries devices and Sony, Samsung, etc all shipping WiFi enabled gadgets, with T-Mobile now selling a service that is dual WiFi/cellular, the pressure will grow all the more. Good public WiFi will simply become a priority now not for the 5% who love technology and are passionate abou WiFi, but for many millions.

It will also become a priority at some point for the carriers, unless the cell network will in fact be able to support the demand for multimedia content. For now, it looks as though WiFi will be a complementary means of getting high speed downloads and video streaming on a dual WiFi/cell device, with the Hot Spot a nomadic stopping point in an otherwise mobile environment.