 marigoldsGainfully employed, finallyPremium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1 | reply to Nightstick
Re: WiFi was not right Philly Wifi was not a municipal wifi project though. It was some hybrid with a completely different purpose, as you pointed out.
Read Tom Carlini's article. He is talking about muni wifi in general as a network structure; and starting from the assumption that the primary purpose should be profitability. And then arguing that a profitable business model does not exist (which I think is true).
The problem is that the business model for successful muni fi is not about profitability but about cost savings. There are extremely successful municipal wifi, electric utilities, water utilities, etc. that operate on a service provision and cost savings model. In the case of wifi, they make the important distinction that they are not providing broadband services to the whole populace, but rather only to city services. This replaces the fortune that has to currently be spent on mobile broadband services, resulting in a huge cost savings.
Profitable? Not at all when the city is the only customer. Saves taxpayer money? Absolutely.
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