2005 14
Are Municipal WIFI networks a Wise Investment?
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Tomorrow we will release the FON software. With this software download and a Linux enabled access point, anybody can turn their wifi access point into a hotspot and choose to either charge (the BILL mode) or share (the LINUS mode). Now reading about municipal wifi networks I wonder. After we release the FON software, should cities continue spending money to build wifi networks? Aren´t wifi networks already built by private individuals, but because of a lack of a unifying software such as FON´s, they are now unavailable? Wouldn´t taxpayers prefer to donate part of their bandwidth at home in exchange for bandwidth elsewhere rather than pay for municipal infrastructure? I think so.
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Eric on November 14, 2005 ·
Awesome idea! I can’t wait to see how it goes.
Matteo on November 19, 2005 ·
“Wouldn´t taxpayers prefer to donate part of their bandwidth at home in exchange for bandwidth elsewhere rather than pay for municipal infrastructure?”
Absolutely! This is true even in the case of privately-owned municipal networks. Here in San Francisco, where I live, the city is receiving bids from two dozen providers (including Google) for a city-wide “free”, non-tax-funded wi-fi municipal network. Users do not pay for municipal networks, therefore they have no or limited incentive to install, pay for and share their own network. What they do not realize is that the cost of running this centralized networks is eventually passed on back to consumers through whatever business model the vendor implements (advertising in Google’s case).
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Teemu Leinonen on November 14, 2005 ·
Do you let municipalities to become Linuses in the FON with free access for all or for instance for those with a library card. Or maybe you want to offer municipalities a possibility to become Bills like bars or restaurants and they can decide if they pay they pay the 50% of the cost.
Cities are full of municipality building in central locations, so you should really think how to get them on board.
Maybe you should introduce some third role, let say Manuel, who is the public body with its own rules?