Municipal Wi-Fi Stalls, Market Surges Forward

by on August 14, 2007 · 6 comments

Over the last two years, San Francisco has been in negotiations with Earthlink who, in partnership with Google, has had plans to build a Wi-Fi “cloud” over the 47 sq. mile geek-infested city. The goal, set out in 2005, was to blanket the city with 1,500 wireless hot-spots which would be accessible free of charge, supported by ads from Google. For those who wanted faster, ad-free service, a subscription fee could be paid.

Now rumors are circulating that Earthlink is pulling out of the deal, while the San Fran government is moving forward with a non-binding referendum in September that will presumably decide the fate of this boondoggle.

But San Franciscans needn’t worry. According to a 2005 paper by Steven Titch of the Heartland Institute the number of San Fran hot-spots that year was 396 (making it the #1 Wi-Fi city in the country). The latest jiwire.com numbers show that number is now over 800. It seems that hot-spots are following Moore’s law and doubling in 2 years!

With over 800 public hot-spots (halfway to Earthlink’s goal) already covering this 47 square mile area, why should the city give away special privileges to Earthlink for a city-wide build-out? The competitive marketplace is already taking care of spreading the wireless love around the city. Why not open up the city to more competition by easing right of way access, eliminating or cutting taxes associated with Wi-Fi installation, and opening exclusive franchising? Rather than looking backward and modeling themselves after past state-run follies, cities could take a leading role in increasing competition.

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About Cord Blomquist

Cord Blomquist spends most of his time pining for the singularity. To pass the time while waiting for this convergence, he serves as the New Media Manager at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before landing this sweet gig, Cord hocked policy writing for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, toiled in the halls of Congress, and even worked in a crouton factory. In college, Cord spent his hours studying political philosophy and artificial intelligence, resulting in an unhealthy obsession with Lt. Commander Data. All of these activities will, of course, be viewed as laughable when he is ported from this crude meatspace into the nanobot cloud.

Read more articles by Cord Blomquist.

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com/ enigma_foundry

    Rather than looking backward and modeling themselves after past state-run follies, cities could take a leading role in increasing competition.

    Cord:

    It’s not the 90′s anymore, and there is no consensus that everything that is “state-run” is a “folly.” In the age of Enron, global warming, Vioxx, the working assumption is that for-profit means corrupt. I don’t completely share that but it is out there.

    There are plenty of examples of well run govt initiatives, and it seems to me that the smaller scale efforts are often very well run.

    In particular, in the last post about municipal Wi-Fi I compared the se efforts to municipal libraries, and I don’t think you demonstrated that this analogy is flawed in any significant way.

    You did, however, demonstrate antipathy towards public libraries.

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff

    Rather than looking backward and modeling themselves after past state-run follies, cities could take a leading role in increasing competition.

    Cord:

    It’s not the 90′s anymore, and there is no consensus that everything that is “state-run” is a “folly.” In the age of Enron, global warming, Vioxx, the working assumption is that for-profit means corrupt. I don’t completely share that but it is out there.

    There are plenty of examples of well run govt initiatives, and it seems to me that the smaller scale efforts are often very well run.

    In particular, in the last post about municipal Wi-Fi I compared the se efforts to municipal libraries, and I don’t think you demonstrated that this analogy is flawed in any significant way.

    You did, however, demonstrate antipathy towards public libraries.

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    I thought this was the age of Katrina, the Iraq war, and the I-35 Bridge . . . .

  • http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html Jim Harper

    I thought this was the age of Katrina, the Iraq war, and the I-35 Bridge . . . .

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com/ enigma_foundry

    Katrina and Iraq just show the necessity of having a well-run government, by those who believe government should be well run, instead of by those who want to do away with it.

  • http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff

    Katrina and Iraq just show the necessity of having a well-run government, by those who believe government should be well run, instead of by those who want to do away with it.

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