Recently in municipal Category

That's always been the dream of public Wi-Fi:   That it would put poor and rural communities on the global grid, and give them the skills they need to compete and even live in this world.  Thus far however, the results have been disappointing.    Too early -- just not enough devices, and very clumsy about finding you networks and logging you on.   Poor network performance --   very limited range of 150-300ft, unstable connections, poor network management -- the tools needed to be developed.  Then there are all the technical limitations that are endemic to operating in an open, unlicensed spectrum at low power.  Other networks interfere.  Doesn't penetrate foliage, or walls.  Thus the early business models that relied upon anyone -- users, municipalities -- paying for this all failed.  Who would pay for the above?  Google of course has been focused on ad supported public Wi-Fi, but that takes networks that work and devices that are Wi-Fi friendly.  No traffic, no ad revenue.

But even now as various muniwireless projects are shuttering, because the network cost far more and performed far worse than expected, new devices like the iPhone are starting to drive demand for Wi-Fi networks, and new Wi-Fi networking technologies are now making possible at last to have 'good-enough' networks, ones that could indeed provide enough in  public amenities and revenue streams to actually  cost justify the building of such community Wi-Fi networks.

Taking a look at matters all together, from the current state of antenna technology, to what Wi-Fi network managing and monitoring tools that are now available, to the flood of consumer-friendly Wi-Fi enabled devices in the pipeline to Web 2.0 (dynamic, interactive, content driven) functionality being now implemented on community portals, to what we have been hearing in the market as we speak to BIDs (Business Improvement Districts), the time for community Wi-Fi is finally arriving.

That is great news for local businesses --  community Wi-Fi and the community web portals that come with them will make those local business much more visible locally and on the internet. 

That is also great news for those who can't afford access.  The Digital Divide leaves the poor and the rural off the grid.  It renders them information-poor and less employable.   It leaves too our nation at a great disadvantage as we compete with the many countries around the world where the internet is much more available, much faster and much cheaper.

The best news is that we are at an early phase in the evolution into the world of pervasive computing, the world of the wireless web.   Devices will become ever cheaper and ubiquitous.  Witness what One Laptop Per Child is trying to do, create a $100 Wi-Fi enabled laptop to bring the web to children globally.   What should be the dream for this country?  Should it be any less so?

We see Wi-Fi renewing communities by connecting them both to the web and to the local web of their community via the web portal.   We see the community portals within the Wi-Fi hot zones encouraging people to buy local.   We see local citizens bringing arts, cultural, civic, and historical information to the local portal to share.

The devices and networks, after five long years, are finally arriving.  We are fast approaching a platform that can support the dream that we began with, that Wi-Fi can renew communities by bringing them the Internet, but localized.

 

Covad has been great. New York City is a challenge, the parks are an even greater challenge, but we got it done. We got working DSL into 17 park locations and ADSL2+ into Columbus Circle, The Sheep Meadow, Washington Square Park, Summerstage, with Union Square pending and other locations also upgradable.

What does that mean for the user? Free high speed WiFi, with the capacity to support multimedia and a good number of simultaneous users. ADSL2+ tripled our capacity. Visit any of our free WiFi Hot Spots here.

Here is the rest of the press release, also available as a google search here.

, Wayport Among Providers That Rely on Covad's T1 and DSL to Connect Hotspots in Airports, Parks, and Other Public Areas

Here's something from the NYT opinion page on the announcement that ePath has been selected to provide Wi-Fi to L.I.

The editorial makes no mention of the fact that first ePath has to raise $150 million in capital. One wonders what the market is for venture capital for muniWiFi deployments given Earthlink's travails. Keyspan Energy, their backhaul partner (they will provide fiber) could well back them. The other partner, Cisco, has at least the gear. Perhaps with the $150 million, once they get it, they will be able to cover a projected 750 square miles, which would come out to 200K a square mile.

Here we go again, this time from Newsweek. We have been hit with the collective realization that for-pay citywide WiFi networks are not getting nearly enough subscribers to support the costs, and that QoS issues when covering large geographic areas and going in doors are driving up costs and undermining the value proposition.