MuniWireless

Here are profiles of companies that provide equipment, software and services for city wireless broadband networks. Each profile contains a description of the company’s offerings, as well as links to news about its city projects and recent product launches.

Attention vendors: if you want a company profile page, please contact Nancy Puglisi (nancy [at] muniwireless.com).

Browse Buyer’s Guide:

Here’s a dose of reality: the U.S. municipal wireless market has grown from zero to nearly $400 million in annual revenues in just four years. In the next four years, the market is expected to grow by more than 35% percent—each year. More than 400 municipalities in the U.S. have either planned or deployed networks. Local governments have saved tens of millions of dollars in improved efficiencies using municipal…

The European Commission has asked the Belgian telecoms regulator, IBPT, to speed up local loop unbundling in Belgium. The Commission supports the IBPT’s efforts to open up Belgacom’s (the local incumbent) lines to competitors.

Below is an excerpt from the European Commission’s press release:

“In a letter sent today, the Commission asks IBPT to reinforce the provisions allowing new entrants to use the local network of the historical incumbent operator to provide broadband services to end users (local loop unbundling) with a…

Belgacom, the incumbent telecom operator in Belgium, says it will stop delivering dial-up service to customers. The company says it does not make any sense to continue delivering dial-up service, which very few use.

Belgacom estimates that it has very few dial-up customers left and most of them live in rural areas where there is no ADSL. Fortunately, ADSL now reaches 99.7% of the population so there are hardly any places left in Belgium where one can’t get ADSL service.

And where…

Meraki, a wireless mesh equipment maker, has announced a bold plan to create a citywide Wi-Fi cloud in San Francisco that would provide free Internet access. The project relies upon residents setting up solar-powered mesh nodes on their rooftops and repeaters in their homes.

What is Meraki’s “secret” sauce? Here’s what the press release says:

“Meraki’s unique technology creates a wireless network by combining signals from hundreds or thousands of low-power radio repeaters installed on rooftops, balconies and windows, extending WiFi access…