What’s really going on with Muni Wifi?
The concept I am starting to see is that everyone realizes that the first round of WiFi transmitters won't and don’t work so well, but that the selected Vendor gets access to all the good light poles (many poles can’t be used for a good number of reasons (blocking Trees, no power except at night…) and due to weight and power can only support one WiFi box).
So it will be very hard for second WiFi Vendor to come into that local market. Also on the second round of WiFi technology in two-three years, the 1st Vendor already has all the good spots and now can charge a fee for this new WiFi for ALL when it is finally a usable solution which lets you drop your cable, cell, land line etc. Vendors are asking for 5 year contracts with 2 renewals typically. 15 years! That is called Lock-in.
And by the way, two WiFi solutions unless very very carefully designed in advance will conflict, so that is still another reason why this is a monopoly in the making.
So this is a lot about light poles – it’s a backdoor monopoly. And it gives bragging rights to a selected Vendor announcing that SF went with them - PR for all the other cities in the US - many which are following SF because of the Free WiFi Google offer.
Comments
Umm, wrong on pretty much all counts.
A light pole can support several WiFi nodes, each operating on a different frequency so to NOT conflict.
And the assumption that MORE THAN ONE network operator will "invest" tens of millions of dollars to parcel out FREE WiFi to EVERYBODY, with ZERO guarantee that ANYONE will then subscribe for-pay (and drop their better DSL, Cable, etc linkups) or that e-advertising will magically make all of it worthwhile is, to put it mildly, naive.
The REAL problem with SF Muni WiFi will be finding even ONE taker on their magnanimous offer.
Posted by: Carlos Rios | January 5, 2006 03:27 PM
While I appreciate Carlos' point of view. It seems unlikely that San Francisco would have gone ahead with the RFP unless they thought companies would bid on it. In fact 5 companies offered a component of 'free' in the RFI/C.
Additionally I received a tour over the holidays of the WAZTempe solution by their network architect and he did drill into me the 'real estate light pole' concept - Btw WAZTempe uses AB&G so that uses most of the common frequencies, leaving just scraps for a 2nd WiFi Vendor.
I do agree with Carlos that Cable and DSL are more reliable at this stage of WiFi and that is what I experienced in WAZTempe - but that is my point as well - this is about getting the choice spots for a future WiFi solution - it's Vendor Lockin - which will probably not have a Free component
I consulted two other authorities before publishing this post and they both agreed it was rock solid.
Posted by: Kimo Crossman | January 5, 2006 04:43 PM