A Tale of Two Cities–The WiFi Version
The San Jose Mercury News today published two simple paragraphs detailing the differences between two cities–Corpus Christi, Texas and Portland, Oregon–in how they each deployed a citywide wireless network.
We’re not talking huge, complicated charts highlighting various aspects of each network–like I said, two simple paragraphs. However, after reading them, there’s a lot of information you can glean from them that will give you some idea of what is happening in the sector and what the future may hold.
In Corpus Christi, the approach was to utilize a wireless network for city services, such as monitoring gas and water meters, and the automating of data collection. After about a year, city workers were leveraging it to conduct tasks such as code enforcement and public works projects. Earlier this summer, EarthLink took over management of the network, and the goal is to expand its reach to city residents.
In Portland, MetroFi launched a free, advertising-supported network, but coverage has been spotty and usage is nowhere near what supporters thought it would be (11,200 users as of May 2007).
By looking at these two models, one would assume that the Corpus Christi approach is hands-down the more accomplished network–they rolled it out to city services to see whether it would really streamline things and be useful. You would be right in saying that, but not all municipalities are displaying the kind of “patience” that Corpus Christi displayed.
Cities like Portland and many others have leaped onto the muni WiFi bandwagon because supporters believed it was the right thing to do and would push their respective municipalities to the forefront of the technology curve. Plus, the concept of giving people another option for accessing the internet was too great to pass up.
These people are also “right”, but like what San Francisco is currently experiencing, city governments are looking for a return on their investment and the expectations of the citizenry are climibing higher, so if an ISP that gets a contract to develop and deploy a citywide network DOES NOT meet those expectations, it’s muni WiFi that takes the brunt of the hit.
It’s amazing how much you can glean from so few words…
August 6th, 2007 at 11:23 am
i can’t wait until East Lansing gets one..
October 16th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
[...] to the report, the city of Corpus Christi, Texas seems to be going about it the right way and could end up being the model for future AND current [...]