Houston: there is no muni wireless problem

Pundits, eager to eulogize muni wireless in the days following EarthLink’s retreat from the market, wrote headlines like “Houston we have a problem” when the company backed out of its deal with that city. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, news of muni Wi-Fi’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Houston “absolutely” plans to go ahead with the build-out, says the city’s CIO.Pundits, eager to eulogize muni wireless in the days following EarthLink’s retreat from the market, wrote headlines like “Houston we have a problem” when the company backed out of its deal with that city. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, news of muni Wi-Fi’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Houston “absolutely” plans to go ahead with the build-out, says the city’s CIO.

Houston plans to use the $5 million penalty EarthLink must pay for backing out of its contract with the city as “a nice nest egg to go forward,” says Houston CIO Richard Lewis.

Lewis’s remarks, which came in a recent interview with Texas Technology, come as no surprise. We’ve been saying since before EarthLink announced its restructuring that the company’s difficulties in the muni market had far more to do with its own struggle to find a business model that worked than it did with the goals and objectives of its municipal partners.

In Houston, at least one of the city’s goals was reached even without deploying the network. According to Lewis, Houston’s key objective in seeking a city-wide wireless network was to bring broadband rates down in the city and that has already happened. “As soon as we announced what we were doing,” he said, “Comcast and AT&T dropped their rates. Before our project in Houston, the broadband/DSL rates were anywhere from $30 to $50 per month. Today they are $15 to $20.”

The city is now looking to a Wi-Fi network to reduce the cost of government by eliminating the costs of expensive cellular cards and T1 lines for city communications. The efficiencies are compelling. Lewis cited a 40 percent savings on T1 expense and a savings of $35 per car by using WiFi to eliminate the use of cellular cards for 2000 police cars and 500 fire and EMS vehicles.

Lewis expects the city to do an assessment “and study when the best time will be to go back to the market for a Wi-Fi network or some kind of wireless infrastructure.”

Houston’s experience is not the only one that testifies to the compelling interests that municipalities have in wireless network deployments. Chicago, whose plan for a city-wide network went on hold after EarthLink’s exit from the market, is pursuing a public safety network in partnership with IBM. And just yesterday, we reported the signing of a bill in New Jersey that gives an official green light for munis across the state to continue with wireless deployments they have on the drawing boards.

Update: For more on Houston’s strategy, see items 40 to 38 on our list of Top 50 MuniWireless Trends.

Click here to read Lewis’s interview.