[This was alluded to by the IBM speaker at the Brooklyn NYCBAC hearing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nafF5zwfLo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQhbiOttZI ]
WIRELESS -- WITH STRINGS ATTACHED [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amol Sharma [EMAIL PROTECTED] In recent years, dozens of U.S. cities and towns have announced plans to build Wi-Fi networks that would give their citizens a cheap and convenient way to access the high-speed Internet and provide new competition to phone and cable companies. Now some of those projects are running into hurdles. Constructing networks that can provide Internet access to homes and office buildings and withstand challenges from nature that interfere with wireless signals -- such as hills or rainstorms -- is proving more costly than anticipated. Some Wi-Fi projects, such as Philadelphia's, are running 30% or more over budget. Many cities are discovering the true costs of the initiatives only as they begin to roll out infrastructure and test the networks. Consumer demand for the services, meanwhile, has been soft in the early going. Companies such as EarthLink Inc. and MetroFi Inc. have been increasingly taking the lead on building and operating these networks for cities. But as the economics of the industry get tougher, the companies are asking cities to bear more of the financial burden, either by contributing cash toward construction or by agreeing to purchase Wi-Fi services for government workers. The municipal Wi-Fi movement is far from dead. More than 90 cities and towns, including Portland, Ore., Corpus Christi, Texas, and others, have already launched service, according to MuniWireless.com, a Web site that tracks the projects nationally. Nationwide spending on municipal Internet projects was $236 million last year, up from $117 million in 2005, and is expected to nearly double this year, the organization said. Wi-Fi technology, generally, is gaining popularity. Consumers are increasingly accessing the Web at hotspots like coffee shops and airport lounges. And they are doing so not just from laptops, but also from new mobile devices like Apple Inc.'s iPhone. But municipal networks aren't on track to offer consumers a cheaper high-speed alternative to the powerful U.S. phone and cable companies, as some backers once envisioned. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118722557149599153.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace (requires subscription) --------------------------------------------------------------- WWWhatsup NYC http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com --------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.isoc-ny.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
