Cities swap public Wi-Fi secrets

Despite the tribulations of launching a regional wireless Internet network, some cities are making progress by sharing their hard-won lessons.

Stung by criticism of high cost, flaky service, and pandering to recreational Web surfers, cities can justify their investment in free wireless service by using the networks to support public safety radio traffic, attract new businesses, and abolish the "digital divide" that can stop low-income workers from landing Internet-age jobs. That's the message from government technology workers gathered at the MuniWireless 2007 conference in Newton, Mass..

Ubiquitous wireless coverage could also improve residents' lives by offering automated traffic monitoring, parking enforcement, and meter reading, they said.

But sometimes even those goals fail to sustain public support when a network hits surprise hurdles, said Bill Oates, chief information officer for Boston. The city had been running its new Wi-Fi network for a month in the blocks surrounding city hall when citizens began to complain that the Internet service provider used a content filter that blocked certain Web sites.

"We will keep hitting bumps in the road, we know that. But sometimes it makes you ask if it's WiMax versus Wi-Fi versus 'Why even try?'," Oates said Tuesday in a conference session.

Cities can also face a challenge when the local historical society complains that wireless antennas can harm the architectural appearance of city buildings.

City workers in Malden, Mass., found a way around that problem by fitting a Wi-Fi antenna inside the storefront sign of a local bar. The business owner was happy to donate the location in exchange for a strong signal, and the new node boosted coverage in a heavily populated part of town, said Anthony Rodrigues, the city's director of information technology.

That example illustrates that the politics of launching a wireless network can be a tougher challenge than the technology, Rodrigues said. It is fairly easy to link the networks in neighboring towns to share coverage areas or fire response, but it's much harder to persuade elected leaders to talk about funding the effort or agreeing who will control the network.

The political hurdle applies far beyond the borders of New England, where the conference is taking place, said Esme Vos, the founder of MuniWireless.com, a blog and sponsor of the conference.

Until recently, public wireless networks have existed only in major cities with large budgets, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, and Portland, Ore., she said. But across the United States, the number of municipalities with planned or deployed public broadband networks has risen from 122 in July 2005 to 385 in May 2007, according to MuniWireless.

The downside of that success has been increased public scrutiny of the investment involved and demands from some taxpayers that the networks should be financially self-sufficient.

That pressure has pushed the industry to consider many new business models, borrowing ideas such as the advertising embedded in text messages or commercials that play over cell phones, she said. Others have asked government regulators to force content providers to bundle free wireless access with existing cable television, phone service, wired Internet access, VoIP, and IP television packages.

However, Vos is passionate that governments should not insist that municipal Wi-Fi pay for itself, just as they don't require public utilities and paved highways to run at a profit. Governments throughout Europe already support public networks that way, not only in urban centers such as Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam, and Milan, but throughout rural regions, she said.

In the meantime, municipal technology leaders in the United States should continue to hone their skills at expanding coverage and supporting reliable service. "There have been a lot of negative stories in the press recently, saying 'these things don't work'," Vos said. "But people are learning from their mistakes. If you have to use 40 nodes instead of 20 nodes to cover the area, we can learn from that."