What's Muni Wireless Good For?
At this point it's probably worth asking the question, "What are these networks good for anyway?"
The stated goals are obvious: economic development through advanced communications infrastructure, improved government efficiency, and greater equality of opportunity via technology (i.e., "bridging the digital divide").
It seems clear that, at least so far, only the second -- better government services thanks to mobile workers equipped with always-connected devices -- is a lock. Whether Plains, Ga., or Peoria, Ill. -- or even Petaluma, Calif. -- will attract new businesses and high-tech workers because they can offer a mostly reliable, nearly broadband-speed, outdoor wireless connection is a highly dubious proposition. It's mostly the civic equivalent of cup-holders in cars -- "We've got to have them because [insert rival carmaker here] has them!"
As for the digital divide, most networks now in deployment are finding that offering a free, residential service is either financially unrealistic or technically infeasible or both. And, at any rate, providing free Internet access to families who a) don't have computers and b) can't afford the customer-premises equipment to bring the signal indoors is an empty symbolic gesture.
Ultimately, the real value of the municipal WiFi networks spreading like algae across the land may be in their efficacy as testbeds for mobile infrastructure, applications, and services.
That's the conclusion of a new report from Oakland-based wireless consultant Craig Settles, head of Successful.com, who notes that "Government spending for mobile technology is outpacing small and medium-size enterprise (SME) spending, and this validates local governments’ potential value to suppliers." In other words, who else is going to pay you to put up WiFi mesh networks of 10, 25, or 50-plus square miles?
Even in cases like Portland, where networks provider MetroFi Inc. is footing the bill, the private entity has guarantees like free or low-rent access to city-owned infrastructure (i.e., lampposts) and "anchor tenant" provisions from the local government to make the build-out economically viable, at least in theory. (See Rollin' on the River.)
As muni wireless expert Glenn Fleishman, editor/publisher of WiFi Networking News, says about the huge Wireless Silicon Valley effort, "The project has emphasized public safety and personal access, but it was clear from the get-go that every form of wireless will get a work out, with Cisco and IBM having the opportunity to build systems that they could then sell worldwide."
This has happened before, with other communications technologies: Samuel Morse gave the public demonstration of the telegraph in 1838, but it took $30,000 in Congressional funding for an experimental line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore to convince the public, and investors, that the new system had a future.
The municipal systems now under construction are just that, experimental, and while their short-term value to today's consumers and businesses may be limited, their long-term worth to the network suppliers and providers of tomorrow will be incalculable.
— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung
Mesh networks are the wrong answer to the governments inability to push the phone companies to developing high-speed infrastructure. I'm all for the free-market but telcom regulations did not allow the market to develop under true free market conditions, thus a huge gap between our wired infrastructure and the rest of the world. Mesh networking is a patch to get around the phone companies. Since nobody could invest in wired infrastructure to compete with local carriers, they assumed wireless carriers could.
Unfortunately, mesh networking is crippled by the fact that 2.4GHz was never designed to be a city wide communication system. Too low power, too high-frequency, and the interference all conspire to make deployment too difficult, too expensive, and too slow. Then the government in it's infinite wisdom says to the WISP mesh companies, we want free everywhere for everybody. Silly business plans that try to use advertising as a revenue tool tried to find alternative ways around this free model but to date, everybody in this market except for the engineering and installation companies, are losing tons of money.
The questions that need to be asked are who needs what type of connectivity and what are they willing to pay for it. Focus the right technology to the right application. Quit trying to make a system that is everything to everybody. Unless someone is willing to donate it, the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for it and the mesh companies should be allowed to make a profit, if the market exists. A lot of these cities that wanted free are going to be totally embarrassed when the companies go out of business or new technologies come out to obsolete it before they ever come close to making their money back. This will then require a whole new round of money losing business plans to keep them alive and the cycle continues.