An article in last Saturday’s New York Times talks about fading hopes for municipal wireless networks.
According to the article, the momentum from announcements in Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and others has sputtered, “tripped up by unrealistic ambitions and technological glitches.”
The challenge has been to define a business model that works.
In Minneapolis, the Internet service provider agreed to build the network as long as the city committed to becoming an “anchor tenant” by subscribing for a minimum number of city workers, like building inspectors, meter readers, police officers and firefighters.
This type of plan is more viable, according to market analysts and city officials, because the companies paying to mount the routers and run the service are guaranteed a base number of subscribers to cover the cost of their investment.
Some others advocate a model of complete municipal ownership, as if taxpayers shouldn’t worry about the economic viability of the business plan.
Almost in passing, the NYT article noted that prices for internet services have been dropping below what municipal Wi-Fi providers were offering.
It again raises the question of whether across the board government subsidies should be replaced with an income-based credit.