The New York Times criticized Suffolk and Nassau counties’ decision to go with E-Path Communications to deploy a large Wi-Fi network in Long Island. The network is seriously delayed and no one really believes it will ever go live. The NYT says: “The lesson, which Mr. Levy [Suffolk County Executive] and others were warned about last year and ignored, is that public wi-fi needs public dollars, and that the investment is probably worth it.”
I have a problem with these black and white arguments. On one side are those who say that municipalities should NEVER spend public monies on wide-area Wi-Fi deployments; on the other side are those who say munis should ALWAYS spend public monies.
I say, it depends. There are some cases where it makes a lot of sense to spend public monies on wireless deployments (or any kind of infrastructure for that matter). Where the city will use the network for its own operations, e.g. public safety, traffic management, parking control, wireless automated meter reading, the city will want to spend money so that it can also demand that the systems integrator and wireless service provider live up to certain standards of service. This is the case in Riverside, California and Minneapolis.
Where the city wants to roll out infrastructure, wired and wireless, that will be open to all service providers, it may want to spend public monies. This is what Amsterdam has done in the Citynet project, a FTTH network being deployed in Amsterdam. The city is part of a consortium that will own the network; the city is a passive owner and is relying on private companies to build and maintain the network, and deliver broadband access to businesses and individuals.
One thing never changes: any time you have a complex project, you need to find a company that has experience, commitment and deep pockets to complete it. This applies to bridges, roads, fancy resorts and wide-area wireless deployments.
Also read Glenn Fleishman’s take on the Long Island network.
Thanks for running a great blog and website. I am an avid reader.
Are you aware of any successful wireless networks in which the city didn’t spend a dime and had the private partner pay for everything? As of now I can’t think of a single case in which that actually worked out, but I could be wrong.
I agree that it’s too early to tell — still, it seems suspicious that we’ve had all these recent failures and most of them were following the wholly-private, public rights of way model.