Disappointment with Municipal Wi-fi

From the AP via Slashdot:

More than $230 million was spent in the United States last year, and the industry Web site MuniWireless projects $460 million will be spent in 2007.

Without revenues they had counted on to offset that spending, elected officials might have to break promises or find money in already-tight budgets to subsidize the systems for the low-income families and city workers who depend on the access. Cities might end up running the systems if companies abandon networks they had built.

And this is interesting:

In Lompoc’s case, officials say construction was delayed about a year once they realized wireless antennas had to be packed more closely together.

Then the city learned that its stucco homes have a wire mesh that blocks signals, making Internet service poor or nonexistent indoors without extra equipment.

Yeah, Faraday cages are a hassle that way.

And via the AP story I discovered MuniWireless.com, which is a very pro-muniwifi site. They have a response to the AP story, though I don’t find it very reassuring.

My opinion is that muni-wifi will make sense for a few cities or a few places within some cities. But – based on my experience working for an ISP and covering the industry for my old site, 56K.COM – most cities will soon find themselves with obsolete technology and/or business models. There will be winners and losers, successes and failures, but I expect it to be more of the latter in both cases. I also have some reservations about city governments appointing monopolies and/or competing with free market ISPs. There’s lots of room for backdoor shenanigans and mis-spending of taxpayer money.