FOXNews.com - Municipal Wi-Fi Networks Run Into Financial, Technical Trouble - Technology News | News On Technology
Municipal Wi-Fi Networks Run Into Financial, Technical TroubleMunicipal wifi has two potential customer bases right now, and one in the future. Today, it can be used by home users as an alternative to DSL or cable modems. It can also be used opportunistically by people surfing the web in a city park. The former is stymied by unpredictable RF propagation, and the latter is a fantasy for many reasons: laptop screens wash out in the sunlight, electronics can be damaged by rain, and in most places if the weather is bad, you don't want to be out, and if the weather is nice, you don't want to waste time with a laptop in the park.
In the future, municipal wifi may be used by multi-NIC cellphones. Today, wifi NICs are being turned off by cell phone operators because they are competition. If municipal WiFi can provide decent QoS and a sustainable revenue model, then it has a chance. But this is unlikely. VoIP over WiFi is hopelessly inefficient, and the billing overhead for WiFi makes it as expensive, per minute, as EvDO.
All in all, I think municipal WiFi will be more or less dead by the end of the decade.
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