Market growth and advocacy at the Muni Wireless conferenceĪt 150 people were expected, but over 350 people came to the San Francisco Muni Wireless conference.Īt the keynote session, Esme Vos shared the results of a market study predicting a $400 million market by 2007. Chalk that up to another exciting innovation that's being driven by muni networks. The City will require that the operator open up the network to wholesale service, which would allow any ISP to particpate. One remarkable part of this proposal is that it explicitly embraces the concept of "net neutrality". This allows the City to leverage its resources while reducing cost and risk to taxpayers. It looks like Houston has chosen to follow the public/private partnership model that is becoming common. The draft explains the City's vision: The City's vision is to apply ubiquitous, low-cost wireless Internet access as a foundation for the City of Houston to become the most efficient, effective and responsive city government in the nation-while stimulating economic development and promoting digital inclusion for low-income and disadvantaged residents. Today, the City released a draft RFP soliciting companies to build a mixed-use, citywide network. The City of Houston is looking to get into ubitquitous Wi-Fi in a big way. Houston releases draft RFP for city-wide Wi-Fi But we simply cannot turn off these few lifelines we have to our city and businesses.” “If they really want to play that game, I guess they are right. “If I have to go to jail, I guess I will,” he said. Meffert said he and Mayor Ray Nagin plan to keep offering the service as long as they feel an emergency exists. And by access I don't just mean web surfing: VOIP over wireless is the only phone service available in many parts of the city. The local incumbent (BellSouth) is now prodding the state to enforce the law and shut down the network, even though thousands of New Orleaneans depend on it for access. Problem is that state law, while not completely outlawing muni networks, caps permitted speed at 128Kbps–about twice the speed of a dialup modem. During the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans setup a wireless mesh running at 512Kbps speed. This is off our usual beat it's not a Texas story but it's illustrative.
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