A report in The Washington Post this week says “Area-wide WiFi service could be the hammer that cracks open the broadband market and gives a choice beyond cable and DSL” but cautions it’s not there yet. Oh, really?A story by Washington Post reporter Rob Pegoraro this week took a look at the political and economic pressures on muni Wi-Fi and concluded “cheap wireless access may remain something like being able to walk to work: a luxury valued by people who live in or near the city, but denied to those who want a bigger lot or can’t afford to move any closer in.”
There’s good information in this report but much of it is dated and, like so much that comes out of Washington, it suffers a big city/beltway mindset.
Pegoraro focuses on San Francisco and Philadelphia and never mentions smaller cities, the companies that serve them, or the innovative business models many are pursuing to bring low-cost connectivity to their residents at no or little cost to the city.
He cites EarthLink’s focus on markets of more than 2500 households as if one company’s market position represents the entire industry. There is no mention of MetroFi, Azulstar or others that serve smaller cities. And he talks about AT&T’s backing of anti-muni state legislation in 2005 without noting that it and other incumbents have since begun to embrace the muni market.
I continue to be amazed at how many different companies are enbracing the muni market in many different ways. Within the past years, we’ve begun to see some truly innovative public-private partnerships being forged to make municipal wireless possible in local communities.
Take a look at Kingsport, Tennessee, for instance, where the credit union of the city’s largest employer is spearheading the initiative.
Not only did the WP report neglect smaller communities, it overlooked some of the most innovative big city and regional initiatives, including Boston and Silicon Valley.
It’s a dynamic market that is evolving each day and we continue to see evidence everywhere that, when it comes to business models and forumulas for successful deployments, no one size fits all.
Click here to read The Washington Post report.
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