Facing economic realities of muni Wi-Fi Re:

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: May 4, 2007 12:00:59 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: dewayne () warpspeed com
Subject: RE: [IP] Facing economic realities of muni Wi-Fi

Imagine the same article about the business models for roads? The  
idea of building yet another network that must have 100% coverage to  
work seems is the result of failing to understand the concept of the  
Internet and treating Wi-Fi as if it were another cellular phone system.



Perhaps what is most striking is that these Wi-Fi efforts seem to be  
totally unrelated to anything else. How could it possibly be seen a  
costly effort when the cities are already paying for infrastructure –  
why doesn’t the city itself get value by deploying connectivity for  
itself? It should be the primary consumer. But Wi-Fi bits are magic –  
it’s as if we had separate road systems for macadam and concrete and  
then trying to drive any distance without being allowed to move from  
one to another? For that matter can the police and fire department  
and public works share infrastructure? Even without putting up a  
single tower the concepts that define the Internet should produce a  
cost savings with Wi-Fi simply being a cost-effective way of  
providing coverage compared with special-purpose radios.



As technologists we also have responsibility for protocols that make  
these independent efforts work together without meshing outside the  
network rather than just within it. As I point out in http:// 
www.frankston.com/?name=WiFiEdge we already have nearly 100%  
coverage. The cities can have a role in completing the coverage but  
it is far more important to assure that we can safely share our  
coverage in the same way we contribute to public safely by allowing  
others to benefit from lights on porches. I don’t want to do a design  
here except to point out that a software upgrade to provide dual  
SSIDs without the FON baggage would have a major impact. For legacy  
protocols a personal VPN can provide encryption and a stable address  
for applications without any support inside the network – you can  
then move seamlessly from private access points to public and back  
without the network having to do anything special.



We are seeing the same failure to understand that lets us spend big  
bucks on completely redundant broadband service delivery systems  
which provide a dollop of “Internet” but not real connectivity. And  
then we leave it lying fallow and start to build yet another  
redundant system because wireless bits are special.



Alas, broadband and Wi-Fi are so cool. Cargo boxes all.



-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 21:16
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] Facing economic realities of muni Wi-Fi







Begin forwarded message:



From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)

Date: May 3, 2007 2:04:11 PM EDT

To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>

Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Facing economic realities of muni Wi-Fi



Facing economic realities of muni Wi-Fi

[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]



      In the movement to blanket cities with Wi-Fi, economic  
realities are

setting in as service providers look to tweak their business models

to turn a profit. Since the municipal Wi-Fi movement started taking

shape a couple of years ago, politicians, community organizers and

the companies building the networks have touted Wi-Fi as a cheap

solution to a myriad social and economic problems plaguing cities

today. Some cities see it as a way to bridge the digital divide,

while others see Wi-Fi as providing a third alternative to a

broadband market dominated by the cable and phone companies. Up to

this point, the financial risk has mostly fallen on the service

providers that have put up the capital to build the wireless mesh

networks. These companies are spending millions of dollars on their

initiatives with mostly no guarantee that they will ever turn a

profit. Now as operators move beyond proof-of-concept networks, they

are re-evaluating their business models to ensure they can make

money. This means carefully selecting the cities where they want to

build networks and demanding more assurances from cities that they

can get enough subscribers to make building the network worthwhile.



<http://news.com.com/Facing+economic+realities+of+muni+Wi-Fi/

2100-7351_3-6181058.html?tag=nefd.lede>







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