MuniWireless

The city of Florissant, Missouri (pop. 51,000; 11.4 square miles outside St. Louis) is installing wireless cameras as part of a citywide Wi-Fi network for public safety. The first three cameras have already been set up in areas that are plagued by vandalism. The remaining ten will be installed in various parts of the city. People are worried about invasions of privacy, but police departments everywhere are conscious of this and do take precautions, perhaps not to the satisfaction of…

AT&T’s Wi-Fi network in downtown St. Louis is up and running. AT&T had initially planned a citywide Wi-Fi network, but could not get it done because the light poles on which the wireless access points are to be mounted, do not have electricity 24 hours a day. So they opted instead for a smaller, more focused network.

AT&T is almost finished deploying a municipal wireless network in Riverside, California which will be used for public access and municipal applications. The city…

News of the demise of the proposed muni wireless network in St. Louis, like that of muni wireless in general, has been greatly exaggerated. AT&T has not abandoned the city or its faith in the municipal market. It is focusing on a downtown hot spot pilot. AT&T’s announcement last week that it would not deploy city-wide Wi-Fi in St. Louis came as no surprise. But this was not a case of an incumbent stonewalling muni service. The city and its…