Muni WiFi: More Like Mass Transit than We Thought

Where have I been? I have no idea.



Take this with a grain of salt, for what it's worth, etc., but the consultancy Jupiter Research now says that municipal WiFi programs ain't worth the money. Excerpt from the release:

"Because the benefits of municipal wireless networks are inherently difficult to measure, and because it is too early to look at outcomes, examining breakeven thresholds provides the best reference point for decision-makers," stated Jay Horwitz, Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch. The report estimates that the average cost of building and maintaining a municipal wireless network is $150,000 per square mile over five years. According to the report, roughly 50% of current initiatives will fail to breakeven even if the benefit of the initiative is assumed to be $25 per user per month.

At a recent meeting here at Wired, my boss Chris Anderson went on a bit of a rant about municipal WiFi. The gist: the government is only supposed to do stuff that private folks have failed to do, and so far private industry has not failed to provide broadband/WiFi to people who want it. I don't totally buy this (because I was raised by Communists) but I see the point: should cash-strapped governments take a loss so that their citizens can read CNN.com in the park instead of reading the paper?



Via /., with all the usual fightin' in the comments.