Look to Fredericton for right approach to Muni-Wi-Fi: US analyst

The municipal wireless market has been rocked by recent decisions from EarthLink to shutter several high-profile muni-Wi-Fi deployments, including Philadelphia. But a wireless industry expert in the US says supporters should look to the City of Fredericton in New Brunswick for how a project can be successful. Atlanta GA-based EarthLink had already determined in February that "the operations of the municipal Wi-Fi assets were no longer consistent with the company's strategic direction." But when the ISP couldn't find a buyer for its Philadelphia network, it decided to pull the plug there as well as in other cities such as Chicago, Houston, Miami and San Francisco. Craig Settles, an independent wireless consultant based in Oakland CA and author of Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless, explains that part of the problem was an expectation by users that the service would be free. "It was a deal that Philadelphia was getting, and other cities then wanted the same deal," Settles tells Report on Wireless. "This has set the municipal wireless movement back. It would be much further along today if there had not been so much hype around the issue. Now there has been a big let down." A better solution, says Settles, is for cities to emulate the Fredericton experience. "Fredericton is one of the best success stories," he says. "It is one of the cities that is the furthest along in North America and is the furthest along in Canada." The city along with other key stakeholders and partners came together to discuss and determine the best possible approach to the network. And while the anchor-tenant relationship has often been cited as a key facet of a successful muni Wi-Fi story, Settles emphasizes that relationship was not central to the Fredericton situation. He suggests that not focusing on the general user is one of the reasons Fredericton has been a success. In the New Brunswick capital, the Fred-eZone is a free, community-wide Wi-Fi (802.11) network that provides the city's 80,000 residents, visitors and businesses with broadband access from virtually anywhere within the city, be it a park, hotel, hockey arena, or the airport. Adopting a co-op model, the city looked to multiple partners such as the local power company, the university, the local hospital and several local businesses when it embarked on a mission to provide broadband connectivity in the city. It formed its own telecommunications company, e-Novations ComNet Inc., which built a 22 km fibre-optic network connecting partners with each other and with the Internet. The company deployed Motorola's Canopy wireless system on seven towers throughout Fredericton, which blanketed the city with wireless access. "Our network has caught a lot of attention," notes Maurice Gallant, CIO for the city. "We have a model that is based on leveraging the community network, and it has proven to be a sustainable business model. As we add more members, the price points are better." Earthlink's approach in Philadelphia represented a lost leader for the company since it would have to absorb the overhead costs in erecting the infrastructure and was pinning its hopes on a huge uptake in residential subscribers and soaring ad revenues, according to Gallant. Earthlink was one of the vendors that decided early on to spearhead efforts to build municipal wireless infrastructure in cities such as Philadelphia. Using Philadelphia as a prototype, Earthlink had planned to seize on the consumer Internet market and provide free or low-cost Internet access to disadvantaged areas of the city. The company opted to underwrite the cost of building the wireless network with a plan to recoup its investment through advertising revenues. In other cities, such as New Orleans, Earthlink would not foot the bill for the cost of building the network. "The problem is once you are making something for free for one city, everyone else will want it for free," explains Settles. "In the case of Earthlink, other cities wanted the same deal." Several factors put the marketing plan for branding Earthlink as a premier Internet service provider to the consumer on shaky ground such as a change at the helm at Earthlink when the firm's CEO Garry Betty, an advocate for municipal Wi-Fi, died in January 2007. His successor has since taken the company in a different direction, pulling out of municipal wireless projects in the US. Also, other vendors, such as MetroFi in the US, began employing the same advertising-dependent revenue model with promises of free or nominal cost of wireless access for the consumer. Targeting the general consumer for core revenues has been misguided, says Settles. "For one thing, you are competing with free hotspots that are available in a city, and you are mainly relying on ad revenue. You need to first go after businesses and then the consumer," he observes. "It is like missing a seat on the Titanic," he adds. "Cities that were worried about being behind in broadband Internet access didn't need to be worried. There was a lack of planning and eagerness to get on the bandwagon. You don't want to be on a boat that ends up sinking." Sadly, for a city like New Orleans that has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina, muni Wi-Fi stood for a means of emergency preparedness. "One of the network's first applications was video surveillance, and crime was decreasing as a result," explains Settles. "What little network there was when Katrina hit, proved to be a valuable tool for the community in many respects."

Look to Fredericton for right approach to Muni-Wi-Fi: US analyst

News | 05/26/2008 3:42 pm EDT

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