Cities deploying Wi-Fi face challenges

(continued from previous page)

"We do see some variation in speed among customers," he said. "And that has been something we've struggled with from the beginning. At one time we were seeing people getting signals of 250Kbps, and someone six houses down was getting 1.2Mbps. That just wasn't acceptable."

About six months ago, the city upgraded all the radios in its network with newer models. Since then, Pokorney said service has improved dramatically.

While upgrades to the network were always a part of the business plan for the network, Pokorney admitted the city had hoped to keep its initial network installation in place for at least four years. But the initial lackluster performance of the network forced the city to upgrade only two years into its four-year plan.

"We would have rather not upgraded when we did," he said. "But at the same time, we are a little ahead of our subscription targets. So our revenue stream is a slightly better than we had expected. We're still comfortable with the idea that the network will be self-supporting."

Other communities deploying Wi-Fi citywide have experienced similar in-home performance issues. More than a month after it launched its citywide Wi-Fi network, some residents in St. Cloud, Fla., complained that they weren't able to connect to the service from inside their houses.

The problems that residents in St. Cloud have experienced are common in citywide wireless deployments, said Becca Vargo Daggett, director of the municipal telecom project for the Institute for Local and Self-Reliance.

The network works fine outdoors, but when people try to access it from inside their homes, the signal is often too weak to reach them.

"Wi-Fi in an outdoor setting is a proven application of the technology," said Vargo Daggett. "But adjustments need to be made to make sure the technology works indoors."

Chaska offers residents a wireless bridge device that sits in their home and boosts the signal. The device comes as part of the $16.99 per month service. Since St. Cloud's service is free, the city has recommended that residents buy a wireless bridge, which they can purchase at city hall for $170. Some of the residents complaining of poor reception haven't installed the wireless bridge, Vargo Daggett noted.

"A lot of the problems and complaints can be solved by managing users' expectations, so that they are aware that some tweaking needs to be done," she said.

Critics of San Francisco's plans to build a citywide Wi-Fi network have also voiced concerns that the wireless network, which will be built by EarthLink and Google, will not penetrate inside buildings adequately enough to be considered true "universal" coverage for city residents.

Chris Vein, executive director of the Department of Telecommunications and Information Services for San Francisco, said when he announced the winning bid early last month that indoor use would be discussed with Google and EarthLink. "As we negotiate the deal we will push for universal affordable access...as close as we can to" reaching throughout every building, he said.

Pokorney of Chaska said that improvements in wireless technology and management tools should make many of the issues Chaska faced easier to deal with in the future. Still, he cautions cities to think hard about their decision to build their own Wi-Fi network.

"I've heard a lot of city officials say they want to have a Wi-Fi network," he said. "They don't know why they need it, but they want it. My advice to them is that the technology should fit the mission rather than the mission fitting the technology. There are places where Wi-Fi would be great, but there are also places where it's probably not the best answer."

[ORinSF]

Stick to public spaces

Here in San Francisco, the population is general pretty wealthy. I am not sure who exactly is demanding (in a here's-my-money sense) city Wi-Fi.

If the goal is to help poorer residents, it should be designed as such. Offer Wi-Fi in public spaces, like parks and libraries, which are the proper place for city services.

Taxpayer-funded Wi-Fi in business or residential areas is a waste. Nobody is demanding it; otherwise it would have already been built.

[wnew813]

City Wifi

Dunedin Florida has a company that is trying to setup a city wide wifi and had a hard time with the local power company using their power polls. I think it has been resolved and they should be complete in 6 months. The city government gets the service free.

[nextcube]

Robust or inexpensive? There's the rub

Let's face it - when my neighbor's cheap analog 2.4 GHz cordless phone knocks down my WLAN, it's probably a sign that this isn't a city-wide solution. There's too much other stuff going on in the ISM band. Of course, there's no market penetration of any of the other WLAN standards (even 802.11a, which operates in the less crowded 5.8GHz band, but faces propagation problems as a result), so cities looking to implement "cheap" city-wide WLANs are caught - a more robust solution is expensive and has no penetration; the 802.11b/g solution is inexpensive, but not robust. What is it going to cost the city to try to support a city-wide 802.11b/g network that goes down every time someone picks up the phone?

[stigskov]

Technology fitting the mission....

Effectively 3 channels and a fixed power level makes WiFi quite unsuitable for this mission.

WiMAX however, fits that mission. Please refer to CommDesigns excellent acticle:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.commsdesign.com/design_corner/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100162" target="_newWindow">http://www.commsdesign.com/design_corner/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100162</a>

[kimocrossman]

San Francisco has gone with Google Earthlink for political reasons

Municipal solutions have not been considered.

Rhere's a lot of hype but no pilots were even required before selecting the top vendor.

Expectations need to be reset and cities need to hold vendors to high standards of privacy.

See my blog for more on the issue

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.webnetic.net" target="_newWindow">http://www.webnetic.net</a>

[pradeep.vijayakumar]

Bangalore to wait. Pune, Are you ready?

I'm not too sure whether Pune (India) is ready for this. I see similar political and technical problems arising out here too. But having said that, it is good that its getting started in its early stages of technological makeover (bcos there are rarely any big tech communities out here).
And i find, probably this was the reason bangalore was restrained from the choice for implementing Wi-Fi. The user community is as good as the silicon valley (and it is growing at a rapid pace). Considering all this, I think even the internet laws are yet to mature to handle such a kind of open network.