UK: The Register: San Francisco shows world how not to do Muni Wi-Fi
San Francisco shows world how not to do Muni Wi-Fi
"San Francisco's TechConnect venture has done something hitherto thought impossible, and united progressives and conservatives in the city in mutual concern about the venture."
Comments
Muni WiFi done poorly is useless. Just look at San Jose which has been around a number of years but still can't service users. The problem: not enough bandwidth. The solution: more bandwidth.
There's 14 channel's of WiFi and only one product that can use it all (Xirrus). Until cities realize the problem with too little bandwidth, vendors will make money selling technology they know just won't work (except at 2AM).
The original San Fran spec of 1M doesn't work. Imagine 10 people connected - at 100K? Much more likely you'll see APs but none will allow you to connect, and if you're one of the lucky to connect, you'll loose that connection as quickly as you got it while the single channel AP is busy figuring out how to service all users trying to connect.
Reminds me of the arguements about architecture in the 80's - when the real issue was maximizing bandwidth available.
I for one bet on any WiFi vendor that can dish me out all the free WiFi channels the FCC has provided. For now, that just Xirrus!
Posted by: Jon | January 3, 2006 02:04 PM