Wireless on the Island–will it make it to the finish line?
With the recent announcement of Long Island’s Suffolk and Nassau counties awarding their muni WiFi project to e-Path Communications comes the serious thinking about what this network will do for residents and businesses.
At this point, officials from both counties are looking at ways to leverage the wireless network, with thoughts ranging from data being sent from electric meters through a router to the utility, wireless surveillance cameras being monitored by local and county police officers, and various government services being completed by workers while away from their offices.
As we’ve discussed here before, the muni WiFi concept has been taking its fair share of hits lately, and it might be wise for the Long Island project to find usage in the aforementioned areas before network supporters begin making their pitches to the consumer sector. Plus, with Long Island being such a large area and one of the most heavily taxed areas in the U.S., the time to start talking about user fees may be in the future. However, the project is expected to cost around $150 million, so it will be important to have both county governments and larger institutions (universities, hospitals, etc.) get on-board as paying anchor tenants so the project isn’t left wanting for funds as build-out progresses.
It’s not going to be an easy sell, but we are definitely in the midst of a paradigm shift in the muni WiFi world, and relying on just the “coolness factor” of the technology is not going to cut it anymore.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:19 am
[...] Wireless on the Island–will it make it to the finish line? A couple of New York cities have signed agreements with e-Path Communication to deliver Muni WiFi to their cities. I guess the lessons from Earthlink haven’t sunk in yet. (tags: muni_wifi) [...]