At last, here are the Top 10 Trends in Municipal Broadband. This portion of the list is a mash-up of information found in items 11-50, plus some new perspectives. Here we go.At last, here are the Top 10 Trends in Municipal Broadband. This portion of the list is a mash-up of information found in items 11-50, plus some new perspectives. Here we go.
50-41. Read that portion of the list here.
40-31. Read that portion of the list here.
30-21. Read that portion of the list here.
20-11. Read that portion of the list here.
10. Maturing Ecosystem: The municipal broadband ecosystem still has a few holes — including a need for more qualified and trained integrators. But the pieces for a comprehensive ecosystem are beginning to fall into place. Wireless mesh equipment has matured; traditional applications like CRM and ERP are moving onto municipal broadband (example Granbury, Texas); equipment providers like BelAir Networks continue to expand their partner programs; and service providers continue to evolve their business models around paid, advertising and anchor tenant models.
9. One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Most speakers and attendees focused on applications for municipal broadband networks. But Joanne Hovis, president of Columbia Telecommunications Corp., provided a timely reminder. We must guard against hyping applications, she noted, otherwise this new chapter of the municipal broadband movement could suffer from another round of missed expectations.
8. Youth Movement: What applications will move onto your municipal broadband network over the next few years? Several speakers pointed to Generation Y for answers, noting its penchant for sharing, publishing and reformatting information. To Gen Y, noted Intel’s Chris Thomas, online collaboration is the norm and software truly is a service — rather than a closed source, monolithic program.
7. Mobile Masses: The iPhone is the rare device that lives up to its hype. In some regions, 6 percent to 12 percent of the devices connecting to municipal broadband networks are iPhones, according to various estimates from Google, JiWire, MetroFI and other organizations. When consumers load up on more WiFi-enabled handhelds this holiday season, demand for anywhere, anytime WiFi access will surely rise.
6. Think Locally: Chris Thomas, chief strategist for Intel’s World Ahead Initiative, noted that municipal broadband networks don’t necessarily need a big pipe out to the Internet. Instead, think of municipal broadband like a local area network — where local businesses, residents and entrepreneurs can share ideas and content that stir economic development.
5. Small Cities Are On the Map: Throughout the event, we heard about successful deployments in Armory, Mississippi; Granbury, Texas and other small municipalities that had targeted needs.
4. Big Cities Move Forward: Yes, there were some big, painful setbacks this year. But Chicago is now embracing public safety applications, Houston has deployed automated meter reading; Tucson has mobile tele-medicine applications in its ambulances and other cities are coming online regularly.
3. Digital Inclusion: While “free” city-wide WiFi isn’t a realistic goal for most municipalities, we often forget that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of digital inclusion initiatives continue to move forward. One prime example: Houston has set aside $3.5 million for potential DI efforts. The money is part of a $5 million settlement that EarthLink paid to Houston after the ISP pulled back from the municipal broadband market.
2. Applications: This was the number one word repeated over and over at the conference. Speakers and attendees discussed a range of real-world applications that are now running on municipal broadband networks. Automated meter reading in Burbank, Calif., tele-medicine in Tucson, Ariz., and video surveillance in Granbury, Texas, were among the highlights.
1. Growing Market: The days of irrational Muni WiFi exuberance are over. But the municipal broadband market is growing. Real networks are now live (checkout our deployment HotList), and US spending on municipal broadband systems will rise 35 percent this year, according to the 2007 MuniWireless State of the Market research report. Some pundits think 802.11n, the next WiFi standard, will further accelerate spending on municipal broadband networks. Still skeptical? Join us for MuniWireless 2007: Chicago in November.
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