MUNICIPAL WI-FI: A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: ]
EarthLink plans to undercut traditional broadband prices. That starts with a
$21.95 monthly plan, or $3.95 per hour, for Internet access anywhere in a city,
indoors or out. What that gives you, when it works, is impressive. But the
challenge for municipal Wi-Fi providers is to deliver broadband-like
reliability. Wireless consultant Novarum found that it got connections only 72%
of the time for the 20 Anaheim sites where EarthLink's service was working.
Cell phones, Novarum notes, work about 86% of the time. EarthLink maintains
that Feather, which is now in 40% of Anaheim, connects 90% of the time indoors
and 95% outdoors. But in buildings of more than three stories, you need
additional receivers to boost the signal. That's also true, I found out, in
Starbucks, McDonald's, and other businesses with competing Wi-Fi.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035084.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn
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