St. Cloud, Florida is apparently experiencing problems with its high-profile municipal Wi-Fi project. The 15 square-mile project, which offers free service to city residents, is experiencing “hiccups” that some residents say make it difficult to use the service.
The issue, as is always the case with Wi-Fi, is geographic reach, with terrain impediments a big factor in the ability to receive the signal.
Former Mayor Glenn Sangiovanni, who spearheaded the project, stressed that kinks were still being worked out, but noted that not everyone was having problems. “There’s a lot of variables, and that’s part of it,” Sangiovanni said. “It could be the block construction you have, it could be the tin roof you have. There’s lots of different things that could be unique to your environment as opposed to my environment.
This real-world experience with large-scale Wi-Fi revives the question about whether 802.11 technologies, which were designed for ultra-local purposes, can be scaled up to cover major territories. In other words, St. Cloud’s experience may indicated that Wi-Fi, as some critics have noted, may not be the best technology to deploy across large geographic regions.
Cynthia Brumfield at 7:47 AM|Comments(0)
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