MuniWireless

Applications are the lifeblood of any municipal wireless deployment. Often, a municipality will start with a single application – such as public safety, automated meter reading or public access – and use that as the foundation to build and fund the first phase of the network. Once the initial application proves to be successful, the municipality can gradually add other applications that utilize the same basic network infrastructure.

To date, the applications most prevalent on municipal wireless networks are for municipal usage, rather than for public access. More than 80 percent of the networks planned or deployed in the United States are being utilized for municipal-related applications, such as public safety, building inspections, public works or parking meter and traffic management, according to the MuniWireless 2007 State of the Market report (provide link). About 50 percent of the existing or deployed networks are used to provide free public access to residents and visitors, and an equal number offer paid public access to residents and visitors.

Public safety is by far the leading municipal application for muniwireless networks. More than 75 percent of the networks planned or deployed in the United States will support public safety. In fact, 53 percent of those surveyed in the State of the Market report said public safety was the first application deployed on their network.
Other widely deployed applications include:

• Building Inspection, 52%
• Public Works, 45%
• Utilities/AMR, 43%
• Education, 39%
• Asset Tracking, 34%
• SCADA, 35%
• Parking/Traffic, 23%

Often, the targeted application for the network will determine how the network gets funded, how the business model gets structured, who will champion it and who in the community will back it. For public safety applications, for instance, there are a variety of grants available from the Department of Homeland Security for muniwireless efforts. The network in Rockford, Ill., was funded by a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Generally for municipal applications, there is either a clear public benefit to the application – such as cutting down response times for public safety – or a clear ROI model, such as with automated meter reading, or some combination of public benefit and improved ROI.

There are also applications that help to pay for the network through generating revenue. Advertising, for example, is a growing application in muniwireless networks. It can be used as a revenue-generator to reduce costs, or as a tool to offset costs and enable public access subscribers to receive free or inexpensive services. According to a recent report by The Yankee Group, cities the size of Minneapolis or Boston could realize as much as $7 million a year from advertising revenue alone. Both Microsoft and Google are experimenting with advertising-based muniwireless networks in several communities.
As networks are being build and deployed, municipalities are finding increasing ways in which to utilize them. As of 2006, muniwireless networks work running an average of 3.1 different applications per network. In 2007, that number increased to 4.1 applications. This is clear proof that the model is working in ways that benefit both municipal government applications as well as residents and visitors.
MuniWireless.com provides ongoing coverage of all of the applications that are driving municipal wireless networks around the world. For details on specific applications, please refer to the links above.