Yet Another Model For Muni-WiFi: Go Non-Profit
We’ve talked in the past about how most “muni-WiFi” deals are not what most people think of when they think about a municipal utility. That is, it’s not run by the government at all, but simply the government giving rights of way to some private company, in exchange for certain promises (or money). However, it looks like Boston is attempting a slight variation on this, looking to see if they can get a new nonprofit to step up and manage a muni-WiFi offering — provided it can raise $20 million or so in donations from local businesses. It’s an interesting idea — but, again, there are a lot of questions raised by this (including the big one of whether or not they actually need muni-WiFi at all).
