July 2005
Wireless broadband: What it takes
to go public
CYBERCITY Brittany Chase uses a free, public Wi-Fi
network soon to be available throughout St. Cloud, Fla.
Photo by Bill Bachmann
The wireless technology known as Wi-Fi has already widened Internet access through “hot spots” at businesses such as Starbucks and at airports. Now it’s enabling cities to create public broadband networks that turn entire neighborhoods into wireless access zones.
Those municipal networks are spurring debate over whether Internet access is an essential utility, like water, or, as the communications industry contends, just another telecommunications service, and whether governments should provide it.
The New Millennium Research Council, an industry-supported think tank based in Washington, D.C., says municipal networks have resulted in financial disaster in California, Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio. But those networks were built using older cable and fiber systems, not the wireless approach now being adopted.
An uncertain future. More than a dozen states have passed laws to prevent or discourage municipalities from offering Wi-Fi or any Internet service. Laws are pending in nearly a dozen other states. And a Congressional revision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, expected this session, may determine whether municipal service becomes more widely available.
But at least a dozen communities, from remote towns to Philadelphia, already offer municipal Wi-Fi or plan to soon. Their experiences indicate what its costs and benefits are likely to be for other towns and cities.
Filling a need. In cities we contacted, the circumstances giving rise to a public Wi-Fi network were similar. Consumers and businesses demanded broadband, often for the health of the local economy, but existing providers were too expensive or wouldn’t service the area.
Municipal leaders cite economic benefits from the lower fees they charge--as low as $16 monthly--when compared with commercial DSL or cable, which typically runs $30 to $40 monthly. Commercial hot spots, which deliver access to those without service at home, run about $30 monthly. In some places, the residents’ main benefit is not cheaper service, but having service in an area that commercial providers don’t cover.
costs and benefits
Going public entails costs for site assessment, purchase and installation of wireless equipment, plus ongoing maintenance. Despite those hurdles, some cities have found the effort worthwhile. In Scottsburg, Ind., broadband providers decided the community of 6,000 was too small to make the service pay.
Estimates from several consultants were prohibitive. So, according to Jim Binkley, superintendent of the city’s Electric Department, the community built its own wireless broadband system by erecting a network of antennas and towers, instead of laying down an expensive fiber network. That kept installation costs down to $385,000. The town now charges each household signing up for the service $35 monthly.
According to Binkley, the municipal network saves the school board $6,000 monthly in telecommunications costs.
In 2004, the city of St. Cloud, Fla., installed a free Wi-Fi network for its historic district. Hewlett-Packard designed and installed it, absorbing the $25,000 start-up cost. Service will soon extend to the entire town, covering 15 square miles and 28,000 people for about $1.5 million, with projected annual maintenance costs of $300,000.
Jonathan Baltuch, president of MRI, the company that managed the project, says service is provided free of charge because the $1.5 million comes out of the city’s economic development fund, while maintenance costs will become part of the operating budgets of the city’s municipal, fire, police, and public works departments.
“We’re basically giving the citizens of St. Cloud free high-speed Internet for no more than the cost of a road intersection,” Baltuch says. Consumers who can drop costly cable or DSL service, he says, save more thanks to free Wi-Fi than they pay in city taxes.
PHILADELPHIA STORY
In the most ambitious municipal Wi-Fi project to date, Philadelphia plans to deploy a $10 million network by summer 2006. The project will provide computers and training to low-income families, and free service in parks and other public spaces. Dianah Neff, the city’s chief information officer, says business groups and convention authorities are calling for citywide broadband access to help increase business visits.
What you can do. To learn more about municipal Wi-Fi, visit www.hearusnow.org/internet and www.muniwireless.com.
To find a wireless network near you, or to compare the prices of various carriers, visit www.jiwire.com.
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