Municipal Wireless Searches For Its Connection

In many of our lives, broadband Internet access has become a necessity. But is access to the Web a public resource, such as water, gas, phone and electricity, something that should be readily available at a low cost to everyone? The city of Philadelphia certainly thinks so. Its Wireless Philadelphia project is a non-profit organization that’s collaborating with EarthLink to bring Wi-Fi coverage to certain public areas of the city and low cost and subsidized access to residents. Many citizens will get modest bandwidth for as low as $21.95 per month under the plan, while lower-income families could pay less than half that rate. But Philadelphia isn’t the only city looking to bring Wi-Fi to all of its residents; San Francisco, too, intends to offer free city wide access that Google and EarthLink will fund via ad support.

Although free Wi-Fi sounds like a bargain for users, for years now both the Philly and San Francisco projects have been planned but haven’t actually been deployed because of ongoing controversies regarding the philosophy, technology, and business models surrounding municipal Wi-Fi. For years in Pennsylvania telcos such as Verizon aggressively opposed government involvement in wireless Internet projects, arguing that it represented unfair government competition with private ISPs. Ultimately, Wireless Philadelphia won approval, but only after the model evolved into a fee-based service in partnership with a private ISP. The San Francisco plan remains controversial across a range of political groups. Many question whether Google’s targeted advertising will violate user privacy. Others oppose giving Google/EarthLink a veritable monopoly on municipal wireless services that they might be able to spin off into other businesses. Putting a city wireless plan into the hotbed of local politics and competing interests seems to have delayed some of the largest projects, which were first proposed years ago. San Franciscans continue to debate the merits of the Google/EarthLink proposal and Wireless Philadelphia is only now wrapping up “functionality tests” in a small “proof of concept” area of the city. If the muni Wi-Fi projects are way behind schedule, the technology provider for both of them, EarthLink, is not admitting to delays; “the contracts and deployment proceed on schedules we anticipated,” says Cole Reinwand, VP of product strategy and marketing at EarthLink.

The Big Question
When muni Wi-Fi first emerged in the early 2000s, many officials proposed it as a way to modernize a city, to make areas seem more hospitable to new business investment and to travelers. Making a city “wired” was emblematic of its forward-thinking culture. But as broadband has become ubiquitous in business, that argument has taken a back seat to other civic needs and policies. “There are pretty strong arguments that it democratizes the Internet,” says Adrian van Haaften, VP marketing at MetroFi, which is building a network for Portland, Ore. Lowerincome families remain out of the Internet loop. Many urban areas use the “digital inclusion” argument to justify governments getting in the business of wireless access.

But cities are also buying into Wi-Fi because of potential cost savings. By putting critical services onto the same wireless network that serves residents, communities hope to streamline many operations. For instance, in the Portland, Ore., rollout, MetroFi is planning on connecting the city’s parking meters to a Web-based payment system. A new generation of “smart meters” will accept credit and debit cards on the spot and do all the payment and authentication over the network. Laying fiber in the ground to connect every parking meter would be ridiculously expensive, but wireless connectivity can suddenly make this and other new technologies viable.

Once a citywide wireless network is constructed, EarthLink’s Reinwand argues that it can also become a source of broadband access to government offices. Although most muni Wi-Fi projects touch the citizenry through hundreds of local 802.11b/g nodes, they connect back to more robust access points mounted on buildings and towers. “ Not only will these access points be able to transmit traffic to the Wi-Fi nodes, but they can also provide a fixed broadband wireless connection to government offices and other businesses and institutions that might be in need of this type of solution,” he says.

Next, we will look at the challenges.