tschmidt
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join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
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Re: Muni-WiFi a technological dead end
I was involved in researching a muni FTTP project several years ago.
WiFi coverage and capacity is a big issue. It is one thing to put a hotspot in a retail store and quite another to blanket a large outdoor area. As others have pointed out WiFi was developed as a wireless LAN, that is a very different animal then wireless WAN. WiMax is interesting but so far largely vaporware.
In our case the business model was to provide wireless hotspots in selected areas and make access contingent on being a FTTP subscriber. Basically give people untethered access in parks and other public places.
The project never got very far so we had not dealt with the larger and more difficult issue of guest coverage and how to manage it. Figuring out how to pay for these services is always a challenge. Taxpayers not interested in the service rightly complain about subsidizing someone else’s toy. At the same time data access has much in common with other utilities and will become an indispensable service in the future.
We need to figure out a public/private model that provides ubiquitous high-speed data access while at the same time encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. A tough challenge.
/tom |
