Municipal WiFi Projects In US Placed On Back Burner

Posted by Paul Glazowski on September 3rd, 2007

For years, companies and individuals involved with the development of both the business and residential infrastructures enabling the deployment of widespread Internet access in the US have been admitting that they haven’t quite constructed the most state-of-the-art network(s) in the world. Average speeds of downstream and upstream transfers are all but snail-like in comparison to those recorded in Japan, South Korea, and several countries residing within the European continent.

The most pressing issue facing the US in terms of technological advancement that is a concern of Average Joe, however, isn’t the rate at which data travels in the country. It’s the number of Americans who can experience broadband at all.

Two barriers to entry into the online landscape in the US tower above all: cost and availability. Availability, while a topic for discussion in rural settings, is the lesser of the two evils. Cost, without a doubt, is the larger hindrance.

With the average monthly fee for broadband access ranging from $20-60 (the lower the price, the lower the data rate), it’s no surprise that growth in the number of Internet service connections as all but ceased in the last year or so. All the people that can afford access have it. All others continue to do without.

But some companies and public do-gooders (Earthlink and Google, among others), ever since costs for infrastructure-related hardware have come down, have in the last 12 months or so pushed feverishly for a way to bridge the divisive technological gap. Their solution? Municipal WiFi.

Wireless connections. Everywhere. Sounds simple, and generally speaking, it is. Apart from charting the best locations for hotspots and having hardware vendors offer a reliable supply of connectors, both on the network end and the user end, all it takes is money and a smart process to blanket a metropolis (the only venue for intelligent, mass-minded WiFi distribution) efficiently.

Unfortunately, a great many of those who’ve promoted and planned for these wireless networks, have, as of late, encountered major blocks, almost solely on the legislative end, which is presumed to be a result of lobbying by competing forces. The cities of San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, St Petersburg (Florida), Alexandria and Arlington (Virginia) have “cancelled plans to built (their respective) WiFi networks.”

This news will no doubt come as a huge upset to households in which Internet access is still seen as an unattainable luxury, as well as the general population eager to rid themselves of wires permanently.

Municipal WiFi, financed by tax dollars, is an important stepping stone that most definitely needs to be implemented in the US in the coming years, whatever the opposition. As disappointing as this latest piece of news is, Internet access will, with time, become a sort of public utility – always available, and very affordable. At that time, cities will be best off having already learned and accustomed themselves to a wireless-Internet-everywhere reality with years of preparation. If I haven’t gotten my point across yet, that preparation needs to start now.

Big businesses like Verizon and AT&T, Comcast and Cablevision aren’t happy with plans by cities nationwide to offer cheap wireless Internet access to all. But eventually, it’s going to have to happen, and it’s better if the country forces into development such projects sooner rather than later, otherwise the country faces a future in which it resides even further behind the world’s frontrunners. And that, I dare say, isn’t something I’d like to envision.

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