FACING ECONOMIC REALITIES OF MUNI WI-FI
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
In the movement to blanket cities with Wi-Fi, economic realities are setting in
as service providers look to tweak their business models to turn a profit.
Since the municipal Wi-Fi movement started taking shape a couple of years ago,
politicians, community organizers and the companies building the networks have
touted Wi-Fi as a cheap solution to a myriad social and economic problems
plaguing cities today. Some cities see it as a way to bridge the digital
divide, while others see Wi-Fi as providing a third alternative to a broadband
market dominated by the cable and phone companies. Up to this point, the
financial risk has mostly fallen on the service providers that have put up the
capital to build the wireless mesh networks. These companies are spending
millions of dollars on their initiatives with mostly no guarantee that they
will ever turn a profit. Now as operators move beyond proof-of-concept
networks, they are re-evaluating their business models to ensure they can make
money. This means carefully selecting the cities where they want to build
networks and demanding more assurances from cities that they can get enough
subscribers to make building the network worthwhile.
http://news.com.com/Facing+economic+realities+of+muni+Wi-Fi/2100-7351_3-6181058.html?tag=nefd.lede
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