MuniWireless

Wireless Philadelphia has not been without its problems. But, unlike a number of muni Wi-Fi deployments that are struggling to get off the ground, the one in Philadelphia is nearing completion and is starting to deliver on the promise of digital inclusion. Wireless Philadelphia CEO Greg Goldman talked with us about the challenges ahead.Not long ago, we featured an address by Greg Goldman on keeping the dream of overcoming the digital divide alive in Philadelphia. Since then, I spoke with Greg, CEO of Wireless Philadelphia, about the organization’s abilty to do just that, the peculiar chemistry that contributed to its successes, and the challenges ahead.

Wireless Philadelphia, you’ll recall, was the organization that spurred interest in municipal Wi-Fi as a means of addressing the digital divide. Its goal was to deploy low-cost high-speed Wi-Fi networks to bring last-mile connectivity to underserved populations in one of the largest cities in the U.S.

Like any effort to deploy muni Wi-Fi, Wireless Philadelphia has had its share of problems. Early on, network performance was spotty and EarthLink, the group’s service provider, had to nearly double the number of nodes per square mile. The network probably won’t meet its goal for completion this year but it’s remained close to schedule; presently, Greg reports, the build-out is about two-thirds complete. The original goal, to deploy a city-run free Wi-Fi network, yielded to a public-private model in which the non-profit Wireless Philadelphia partnered with EarthLink; service is not free but persons who qualify for the digital inclusion rate pay only $6.95 for the first three months and $9.95 thereafter.

There’s been some amount of grousing about the differences between the original model and the outcome. But outcomes in most ventures rarely match original intentions and, as a non-profit, it seems that Wireless Philadelphia has been surprisingly productive in ways that a pure city-funded model might not.

It succeeded in raising the funds needed to provide free computers to qualifying low-income families.Goldman attributes the group’s success in that area to its status as a non-profit. The group’s 501C3 status, he says “qualifies us as a social-mission entity. It’s not about a company or a commodity. It’s about a civic vision and, at a transactional level, it’s about a needed social service.” He doubts that Wireless Philadelphia would have generated the community and philanthropic support it’s achieved “if there was a guardianship laced in a for-profit entity.”

Similarly, he says, “there is no way it would survive if it resided in the mayor’s office or some other public agency.” Indeed, muni Wi-Fi was outgoing Mayor John Street’s pet project; mayor-elect Michael Nutter has never perceived it as a city priority. Additionally, its independence has given the group status within a foundation community that has made significant financial contributions toward its goals.

“So many entities and individuals have bought into what we’re trying to say–that people in transitional housing need computers and network access. Young mothers moving from welfare to work need computers and network access,” says Greg. “People understand this is an issue and we have raised the awareness and the profile of this issue in this community. There is a well of good feeling, overall, toward Wireless Philadelphia in the Philadelphia community.”

The advantage of being the front-runner in the digital divide crusade also cannot be under-estimated. Philadelphia was way ahead of other cities in promoting the need to address the digital divide, largely due to the efforts of its then CIO Diana Neff. “We are definitely benefiting from that,” says Greg, “but the other shoe is that this thing was pretty well hyped. We’re dealing with a set of very high expectations that we’re having a hard time maintaining.”

Perhaps. But the group has already far outdistanced my original expectation (and this is where your humble commentator eats some serious crow). Back in 2005 when Wireless Philadelphia was little more than a dream on a drawing board and I was a wireless editorialist at eWEEK, I wrote that the only thing larger than Philadelphia’s ambitions were the challenges it faced in achieving them. I, frankly, doubted that a city as big, as political, and as struggling as Philadelphia was in so many ways could make much headway at all. The city’s crime and poverty rates were and are daunting; the notoriety of its politics span generations. So today, it’s really quite heart-warming to be able to say I was wrong. Two-and-a-half years later, Wireless Philadelphia is not only scoring successes in addressing the digital divide, it continues the drive toward its goals when similar groups in communities like Sacramento, a fraction of Philadelphia’s size with a fraction of its problems, are struggling.

No doubt, Wireless Philadelphia was in the unique position of being the brightest star in EarthLink’s business plan at a time when the company was staking its future on the muni market. As such, its build-out was well ahead of cities that partnered much later with EarthLink and saw their build-outs go on hold when the company restructured in August. EarthLink scored several high-profile successes in the market. It achieved a high J.D. Powers ranking for customer satisfaction in both broadband and dial-up Internet services this year and its Philadelphia network won the Most Improved award in Novarum’s recent performance rankings. Wireless Philadelphia shared in the glow of those honors. But Goldman says that, in some ways, the group’s early successes have just escalated the challenges.

Despite recent moves to reduce its presence in the muni market elsewhere, EarthLink has said it is committed to honoring its 10-year contract with Wireless Philadelphia. On the flipside, says Greg, “we’re working with longer than expected time tables and working out bugs in the technology and customer services. A big part of what we have to do is level-set peoples’ expectations.”