Municipal Wi-Fi is at a point where hype is meeting reality. A lot of cities, not to mention EarthLink, one of the biggest private sector participants in the muni-Wi-Fi realm, are growing skeptical about the viability of wireless service as a public good.
Fortunately for the city of Philadelphia, its high-profile Wi-Fi project just got the green light to expand beyond its 15-square mile test zone to a region-wide 135-square mile service area.
The service, funded, built and managed by EarthLink, is free in public spaces and the group spearheading the effort, Wireless Philadelphia, hopes to bring broadband connectivity to 300,000 low-income homes in the city that don’t currently have broadband access by charging only $9.95 per month for service. (The service, however, is only 1 Mbps downstream. I’ve got to wonder if this low level of throughput isn’t going to quickly alienate many of those low-income residents, who are bound to know that wealthy communities can get 7 Mbps, 15 Mbps or higher from Comcast or Verizon.)
Another big EarthLink muni-Wi-Fi market, San Francisco, isn’t proceeding quite as smoothly, or at least as smoothly as Mayor Gavin Newsom, the main architect of the city’s Wi-Fi effort, would like.
The SF board of supervisors has been causing the controversial and charismatic mayor nothing but grief from the get-go and now they’ve pushed off until July a vote on a proposal to let EarthLink, with help from nearby Google, offer Wi-Fi service throughout the city. In an interview with CBS’s Marketwatch (see video), Newsom said “I think if this doesn’t pass, inevitably we’ll be one of the last cities in the United States to have Wi-Fi.”
That might be right, but San Francisco could arguably wait in line to get Wi-Fi. Compared to Philadelphia, where one in four residents live below the poverty line, San Francisco is a hugely wealthy city (with a poverty rate of 10%), where almost all residents, not to mention Wi-Fi enabled businesses and coffee shops, already have access to broadband service.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:59 AM|Comments(0)
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