MuniWireless

New-Generation Mesh Networks Offer Low-Cost Broadband Alternative

Some mesh networks have recently been discredited when unrealistic business plans as part of municipal in partnerships with poorly written proposals failed. The failures were incorrectly attributed to unlicensed 2.4 GHz mesh technology instead of the financial models. The technology worked, but the real cost was never understood by the municipalities. Systems to support automatic meter reading (AMR), automated parking meters (APM), police cars, fire trucks, video analytics and surveillance and low-cost Internet for…

The city council of Riverside, California has agreed to take over the Wi-Fi network that AT&T has deployed across the city. Steve Reneker, CIO of Riverside, also informed in that the takeover will occur on 15 September 2010. If you have not yet done so, please read last week’s interview with Steve Reneker.

Residents of the Calgary neighborhood of Hawkwood can now get free Wi-Fi access throughout their community and they can upgrade their service at lower prices than the traditional ISPs, says Wi-Fi provider GoNaeco. Every resident and business using the GoNaeco network also has access to a community portal site, featuring community-specific news, events and local advertising.

In addition to City of Calgary, GoNaeco has also secured approval from neighboring communities to deploy these networks. GoNaeco is using equipment from Strix Systems;…

A post by Stephen Rayment, CTO of BelAir Networks, in the Financial Times urges mobile operators to use Wi-Fi to offload traffic from their overcrowded 3G networks. The CTO of a company that makes Wi-Fi base stations would obviously say this, but it is something that many others have been wondering about for a long time. If the iPad becomes as successful as the iPhone, expect your mobile phone service to get even worse.

But I wonder if the operators will go…

Novarum has just written an 8-page white paper titled “2010: Guidelines for Successful Large Scale Outdoor Wi-Fi Networks” which contains recommendations to service providers on what makes a successful large-scale outdoor Wi-Fi network today. These recommendations are based upon Novarum’s work between 2006 and 2009 testing over 175 wireless networks in 36 North American cities. Last April 2009, PC World published Novarum’s test results for 3G networks in the US. Earlier in February 2009, Ken Biba, one of Novarum’s founders,…

Last week Philadelphia announced it hopes to buy the wireless network from a group of local investors who bought it from EarthLink about a year ago. This on the same day the Feds announced the first batch of stimulus grant winners.

As I finish edits to the revision of my 2005 book on broadband strategy that focuses heavily on Philadelphia as a model for effective broadband needs assessment and planning, it warms my heart to be able to bring the Philly…