Realizing That Muni-WiFi Isn't Muni-WiFi

from the about-time dept

While the big incumbents have had a kneejerk reaction to any muni-broadband attempt that says “this is bad, stop it,” — it looks like mobile operators have spent enough time looking at the situation and realizing that it isn’t all bad. In fact, CTIA, the lobbying group for mobile operators, has now officially changed its stance on muni-WiFi, and is now in favor of it. Why? Because they finally realized it could be more of an opportunity than a threat. The real issue (and one which muni-WiFi detractors continue to ignore) is that the details of most of these muni-WiFi projects shows that it’s not really muni-WiFi. The name is somewhat misleading. Most people think of muni-WiFi as the municipality offering WiFi directly (often for free). Instead, most of the proposals are really just about private companies getting right of way access to locations to install wireless access points on things like utility poles. The muni-part is basically that, in order to get this right of way, the winning bidder has to guarantee full coverage of a municipality and reasonable prices.


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Comments on “Realizing That Muni-WiFi Isn't Muni-WiFi”

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11 Comments
Mark Wendman says:

Re: Re: now that u are awake ( when do bloggers sleep

will you post the piece in solar I did? I did not want to post the comment with my email address? but there was no other way to reach you folks – I submitted the article, and was curious after the exhortations sayinn to submit meaty material for yoru posting, all I get is a 3 word response and no posting on Techdirt? curious…

John says:

Re: Re: Re: now that u are awake ( when do bloggers sleep

Let’s see. You posted offtopic. Couldn’t find the feedback form to contact them directly. Posted a comment when you didn’t mean to. Have posts with bad grammar and many misspellings. Then you complain that techDirt didn’t respond to you fast enough.

It’s no wonder they didn’t want to post whatever you wrote about.

Mark says:

Re: Re: Re:2 now that u are awake ( when do bloggers sleep

they asked for submissions on another page and they plead for articles, I submitted an article on solar cell technology – and no you have not seen it, it is decently written by a process engineer ( 22yrs ) and decribes probable technical stumbling blocks of a few high profile Solar cell investments in the VC community. Sorry but Techdirt seems not to reply to decent submissions and yes this is a weird place to discuss this but they set up their site so that no contact can be made… Yes you are correct, but in a certain context that is not quite equitable.

John says:

Re: Re: Re:3 now that u are awake ( when do bloggers sleep

No contact can be made? I see “feedback” links at the top and bottom of each page, and I see “contact” us forms on the “about” page.

Just because you’re unable to see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Besides, isn’t it up to techdirt what they publish? If they didn’t like your submission, why whine about it? It’s unlikely to get anyone to take you very seriously next time.

WiFired up says:

Not a threat

Muni wifi’s are (if they aren’t already) going to be locked down and filtered and bandwidth-limited. “Public” wifi will be the most constrained form of internet access just because the public sponsorship gives every whack job some sort of standing to insist on limits like porn and streaming filters. Most people who want more than email and blogs will need a paid broadband connection.

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