Politics My New Civic Mission Was Gonna be…
posted by on August 14 at 13:40 PM
stumping for Seattle to provide free Wi-Fi citywide.
Then I read this report by the New Millennium Research Council.
Here’s a snippet from the (convincing) Capitalist pigs:
Here’s the spin: municipal Wi-Fi networking is a widespread, growing, David versus Goliath effort to bring broadband connectivity to communities poorly served – if at all – by existing broadband providers. Impatient and frightened of being left behind in the information economy, these communities can build and operate their own networks at rates much lower than those offered by companies whose goal is to make a profit. Consumers will get free Internet access and it will cost the cities almost nothing.The reality is very different.
There is no shortage of broadband in these cities, or in most of the rest of the country. FCC data shows consistent and aggressive double-digit growth in broadband deployment nationwide with 94 percent of all zip codes and all 50 states reporting broadband availability in June of 2004.4 Costs are also falling, as cable and telephone companies begin to recover the more than $100 billion they have invested in broadband infrastructure. Most major providers offer service for under $30 per month, and some as low as $19.95 per month.
Proponents of municipal Wi-Fi networks have been unable to provide a coherent list of the benefits taxpayers will receive for their investment. Though some have attempted to define benefits in simple and vague terms, they can provide no quantifiable cost/benefit analysis. There is no proven business model for such networks, and cities are unable to show any realistic research data indicating how many people will use the service, whether they will pay for the service, or how the city will pay for the network if the plan doesn’t pan out.
I always wonder about security on these municipal WiFi networks. If I'm not supposed to bank online in a coffeehouse, why would I want to do so over another 'free' network that everyone can access? Or am I missing something here?
Why not just give everyone Clearwire account, be a whole lot cheaper.
The RIAA & MPAA hate free WiFi, since it makes it near impossible to track down illegal downloaders.
That in and of itself is incentive for me.
I'm a long-term resident and native of Lompoc, California... a 40k-sized town not near any freeway which has been a famous test case for municiple WiFi.
It seemed like a great idea. DSL and Cable were taking *forever* to make their way to our little burg, and the window of opportunity was certainly there. But once it was announced, big media and big politics swarmed all over the town. The DSL and Cable providers made sure to have their systems up & running--and cheap--while the municipal system was still fighting the tech issues and the big-money interests trying to kill it. In short, it's been an expensive sinkhole.
"Proponents of municipal Wi-Fi networks have been unable to provide a coherent list of the benefits taxpayers will receive for their investment. Though some have attempted to define benefits in simple and vague terms, they can provide no quantifiable cost/benefit analysis. There is no proven business model for such networks, and cities are unable to show any realistic research data indicating how many people will use the service, whether they will pay for the service, or how the city will pay for the network if the plan doesn’t pan out."
Sounds like the Liberal poster child.
@4: I'd guess a big part of why it's been an expensive sinkhole is the cost of fighting the big-money interests trying to kill it.
Cringely's latest articles have been pretty relevant to this question:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_002683.html
Is that why cities are looking into municipal wifi? I thought it was because they saw the benefit of information mobility to modern commerce.
Look, they're trying to push WiMAX to kill off Wi-Fi, since most people use free or near free Wi-Fi.
Not because it's better, but because they can make money off of people if they kill free Wi-Fi.
Don't give in.
What's really needed is broadband to rural areas. Cities are generally already well-served.
I just spent a week without wireless in the DC region because private businesses didn't offer or bother to maintain their wifi signals and there was hardly an open network to be found. Just sayin', it's not like private businesses have exactly been stepping it up.
$19,95 per month for like 3 months then it rapidly climbs above $30 or more. And you still get mediocre upload speeds.
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