Philadelphia to become one big wi-fi hotspot
Milo Plurnbottom 2 months ago // Digital Life Gibber-gabber

Philadelphia has revived their citywide wi-fi hotspot project. The project, Wireless Philadelphia, is ambitious covering nearly 135 square miles and would be a boon to all citizens of Philadelphia. According to WP the network is nearly 80% complete but complications could delay the last 20%.

Even before the Wireless Philadelphia project was announced in 2005 it came under fire immediately from companies such as Verizon communications, but an agreement was reached and the project moved forward. The original network, partnered with EarthLink, was a pay service reasonably priced at $19.95 with a discounted rate of $9.95 as part of a digital inclusion program for people not otherwise able to afford access to broadband. The project began to unravel when customers began complaining about weak signals in their homes. As part of the project revival, Network Acquisition Company LLC, has stepped in to review the existing infrastructure to assess completion of the wireless network.

This second life for the wireless project will be free to the public and underwritten through corporate participation. Other major U.s. cities have planned and/or implemented free internet access in all or parts of the city include San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Miami Beach. Portland, Oregon. Many smaller cities around the United States are following suit on a much smaller scale. In Philadelphia’s case, no tax payer money is being used on the project and consumer groups were pleased about the entire project.

Is free municipal wireless a good idea?

While it is hard to see a downside to municipal wireless internet, in many cases it just hasn’t worked out. Some of those major cities like Houston and San Francisco who had such promising projects are now in trouble. EarthLink’s name again seems to be connected to the failed San Francisco program.

But the real problem according to Tim Wu at Slate.com in his article Where’s My Free Wi-Fi? Why municipal wireless networks have been such a flop. ...

The problem is that cities haven’t thought of the Internet as a form of public infrastructure that—like subway lines, sewers, or roads—must be paid for. Instead, cities have labored under the illusion that, somehow, everything could be built easily and for free by private parties. That illusion has run straight into the ancient economics of infrastructure and natural monopoly. The bottom line: City dwellers won’t be able to get high-quality wireless Internet access for free. If they want it, collectively, they’ll have to pay for it.

Personally I would be fine with a small city tax or fee to cover the cost of a high quality and always-on citywide wireless. It seems as though thinking of muncipal wi-fi as part of the public infrastructure is a good thing. The internet is far more than a communication tool like a telephone. The information and services available make it nearly a necessity to merely be a productive member of society these days (like having access to clean drinking water ) and making sure that these tools are available to everyone at all times anywhere just makes sense. More over it seems as though the big brother conspiracy mongers in the government would be excited about it. It would put them one step closer to a global network that they could use to monitor us with. This just seems like a win-win all around. While I claim to be a Libertarian, I think there are certain things the governement should take care of, and as far as I’m concerned, the internet is as important, or more important than maintaining roads.

Though, we see how good the government takes care of the roads.

We’ll see how the next version of the Philadelphia project (SIC) comes out. While they are not quite yet treating it as part of the municipal infrastructure, maybe they are getting close, and a workable model for other cities can be established.

According to this article at DailyWireless on March 6, 2007 (sorry couldn’t find more recent stats) the most “connected” cities in the world are:

1. Seoul, South Korea
2. Taipei, Taiwan
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Hong Kong, China
5. Singapore
6. Stockholm, Sweden