Wireless networks catching on

Being able to access a wireless network on Franklin Street might not be such a far-fetched idea.

Many cities, large and small, either are providing or developing municipal wireless networks to residents, businesses and public employees.

Dianah L. Neff, chief information officer for the Philadelphia Mayor's Office of Information Services, said the city hopes to cut the cost of Internet access by as much as 50 percent with its wireless initiative, called Wireless Philadelphia.

"We are in the final stage of contract negotiation for a municipal network," Neff said.

This network would have the largest coverage area of any in the country, providing indoor and outdoor services, she said.

The U.S. Congress introduced two drastically different bills during the summer dealing with the issue of public wireless networks.

One would give towns, cities, and counties permission to build their own wireless networks, while the other would ban them in order to protect private companies from public competition.

That debate largely is driven by concern that city-sponsored wireless networks could compete with services offered by private service providers, said Patrick Leary, assistant vice president of the North American marketing section of Alvarion, an international wireless service company.

Because municipal wireless connections mostly are provided free of charge or at a below-market rate, large phone and cable companies see this public facility as unfair competition for their own services, he said.

But advocates say widely available and affordable Internet access directly helps the local city or town economy in a positive way.

Liz Parham, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said the town is still in the early stages of establishing a municipal network.

"At this point we are investigating how it will work," she said.

Parham said officials also are researching how people would access the network and how the town would finance it.

Municipal wireless networks can be funded in a variety of ways, Leary said.

Some local governments publicly own their municipal network and pay for it as a normal utility, similar to water or sewage service. Other communities have joint public-private partnerships with independent companies that collect a fee from users.

Some cities and towns use federal grants to help pay for the networks as well, Leary added.

Many cities have begun using municipal wireless to provide a broadband connection for communication between departments and public employees.

"One infrastructure in a city can do so many things," Leary said.

Everything from police and fire departments to city bus systems can be linked together, creating greater mobility within a city, he said.

Leary added that municipal wireless connections are most beneficial in rural areas. Having free access to wireless networks creates greater opportunities for people to access the Internet without having to pay high monthly fees.

Parham said Chapel Hill officials want to make sure that any municipal wireless network would be a viable economic tool that would attract business and effectively serve the public.

In Philadelphia, Neff said focus group studies concluded that a widely available wireless network would be an economic boon for the city.

 

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