ON AN UPDATE ON MUNICIPAL Wi-Fi

SO NEAR...

Looks like Google is officially moving forward on providing free Wi-fi in the San Francisco area, as this Engadget piece notes.  This of course has been a long anticipated possibility, and a notable milestone on wide area Wi-fi networks being made available in cities and towns across the United States. 

Time magazine has a good, recent update piece on the state of municipal Wi-fi, a subject near and dear to my heart.  They summarize it as thus:

"More than 300 communities nationwide plan to have wireless ventures in the next year, according to MuniWireless.com a portal on city projects. Several dozen small cities--including Corpus Christi; Tempe, Ariz.; and Chaska, Minn.-- already have full-blown systems in use. If 2006 was the year of making deals, 2007 promises to be the year of going."

Tom Evslin has a good post up on how this may be going beyond just cities and municipalities.  As he explains it:

"The governor announced in his inaugural address a concrete plan to make Vermont the first e-state by 2010.  That means broadband connectivity everywhere and everywhere, fixed and mobile.  Also means a state that bases its future service delivery on an assumption of universal connectivity.

The meat is an Authority (legislature willing) with $40 million (lots of money here) of bonding authority to build infrastructure, mainly wireless towers.  Then lease space to service providers but make sure we get the whole state covered."

Pretty powerful stuff, as and when this is fully implemented. 

And it's the sort of thing that can be the springboard for all manner of wireless internet services the world over.

But still plenty of roadblocks, speed bumps, and questions of sustainability and viability remain. 

Stay tuned.

Comments

[Yaser Anwar]

It will be interesting to note Google's monetization strategy. Sure WiFi service, that too for free, is great but how do they plan to monetize it- have ads relevant to what you're browsing?

Will their be pre-paid wireless cards? That would be cool. Let's see.