"Chris Smith" wrote:
>In general, the costs of infrastructure like this are justified with
>reduced costs providing other services, reduced costs of living for
>residents and businesses, and most importantly: improved tax revenues
>from the economic stimuli's of the service.
I defy you to show an example of any city where this has been true.
Granted, there aren't a large number of municipal wireless systems,
but there are a few that have been running for a year or two. Have
they made any measurable difference for those cities?
Wireless Internet is a fast-moving target. Not long ago it was 802.11b,
now people want 802.11g, it won't be long before they want 802.11n. And
what comes after that? Maybe UWB/USB from every light pole? Cities
are not too bad at building things that have twenty- or fifty-year
life spans; I don't think they are good at things that will have to
be replaced every two years. I'm reasonably certain that their budgets
don't account for the costs of periodic upgrades. The result is certain
to be a system that is allowed to become obsolete, and then unused
and useless; a cost to the taxpayers, not a revenue source.
If cities had decided that municipal cell phone service was important
at roughly the same stage in cell technology development as we are today
in wireless technology, they would have built an AMPS network. Depending
on a political system to keep technology current is a fool's choice.
--
Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Though the people support the government, the government
should not support the people." -- Grover Cleveland
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