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Orlando Cancels Free WiFi Project
EvilStein writes "According to local news, the City of Orlando has cancelled the city WiFi project. The 6 month pilot program ran for 17 months instead of the planned 6, but in the end, it was costing the city too much money and very few people were using the service. Might other municipal WiFi projects go the same way?"
Someone tell them to stop, I'm in the middle of dow$£$"%[NO-CARRIER]
liqbase
From the article: But city officials said that only about 27 people a day took advantage of the program -- not enough to justify the $1,800 the city paid every month for the service.
Maybe naively I've been waiting for the propogation of wireless to be everywhere and always available and if not free, at least very inexpensive, and ubiquitous. The quote above snapped me back to reality. Sure wireless everywhere is the buzz these days, but how many people really need, or want it? I would venture even in the techno-elite slashdot crowd many wait for wireless everywhere but only a relatively modest subset of those would actually use it, and of all who use it, it would not likely be at great volumes everywhere (as in, that's kind of what it needs to be to sustain and maintain the infrastructure).
Wireless internet isn't the same as cell phones in the sense that wireless access to the internet is nice, but doesn't drive communications as does telephony. Wireless internet access is a nicety but until wireless folds neatly into existing or expanding other necessary infrastructure (e.g., cell phone) I wouldn't be surprised to see other experimental free wireless internet sites suffer the same fate (really the question asked by the article).
If a city as large as Orlando didn't sustain the experiment there are many other cities that would point to that as justification for not even bothering trying, at least not in the near future.
(Doesn't mean I don't want it, just means it's too niche-y a market right now.)
...you let the free market handle these situations. A bunch of Government Beauracrats spent oodles of taxpayer dollars, and ran the project almost three times as long as promised, and the taxpayers basically got bupkis. Private industry knew better than to waste money there. OTOH, if I'm within spitting distance of Schlotskies in this town, I get free high-speed wifi.
Screw WiFi, I want free fiber connections.
-William Brendel
Why do taxpayers need to fund free WiFi when you can just get it from your neighbor's right out of the box, default install Linksys/Netgear/Airport router?
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I live in Kansas City. If the city put in free wireless in our downtown - nobody would use it. There's nothing in our down town to do .. after 5:00PM (except buy drugs, hookers, or be on a cleaning crew).
A city running something like that would give me the willies anyway. Who's to say they wouldn't be monitoring every piece of information - and/or someone sitting there with AirSnort doing the same..
= Grow a brain...
... and I've never heard of this.
Why not? I'm a technically inclined 20 something who would have used this, had I known about it.
I think that is the real problem here. Their target demographic didnt even know about it!
"The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
I'm always a little amazed that people will use the word "free" when they mean "taxpayer subsidized."
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Sounds great, doesn't it? Free WiFi for the entire city. No need to search for hotspots. No need to pay to surf while you're sipping your Starbucks coffee. But...realistically, who's going to use it? I'm a WiFi junkie and I keep forgetting about all these free WiFi initiatives. Also, we need to keep into consideration that first wee need a very mobile client base, people lugging around their laptops and then using them somewhere. When they do pull out their computers to work, it's usually at a hotel (which generally provides WiFi now) or at work (provided network) or at home (probably networked). I doubt anyone is going to cancel their Internet service at home simply because the city provides free WiFi. I'd much rather blame Comcast for a downed network than rely on the city. Like I said...it sounds great, but the logistics and cost of it all far outweigh the reality of the situation.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
...I live in Orlando and I had no idea the pilot program was going on. You'd think they'd advertise it somewhere - maybe even at the local university. In fact, I don't know anyone that knew such a project was in place.
The internet is a great tool - a channel for almost unlimited forms of information. It's potential hasn't even begun to be tapped, despite the wonders we've already seen. But to see more potential, we need a lot more than just access - we need people with the time, interest and freedom to explore that potential.
We don't see much of that anymore here in America. Few people have the time or interest to go beyond the mundane around them. The concept of progress has become the idea of people selling things to people, with little else involved. Science and education just aren't that important anymore, except for expanding markets.
Am I surprised this experiment failed? No - who is going to have the time to use even free bandwidth to try something new? Not many people anymore. We're just not interested.
That's not to say that it's a truly bleak picture - but we as a population do seem to be stuck waiting for progress to come to us, rather than going out and making the progress ourselves. We need science, social thought, meaningful public education, healthy debate and journalism, and a much greater interest in human progress.
It's not about liberalism versus convervatism - it's about humanity doing something to make the world better, so it's not such a horrible place. It's about doing something to outpace the destruction we're causing, at least on some level. It's about seeing beyond dollars, and using our vast resources towards creating a future where we all know more, not just avoiding the terrors that will never stop coming in new forms.
It's not experiments like these failing that we should be depressed about - it's that we have so very few experiments like them at all anymore (relative to population increase over time).
Ryan Fenton
was that they didn't really tell anyone either. I live in Orlando and I wasn't aware of this test project running... First I've ever heard of it was today... too late now I suppose..
figures.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
I like how Government programs get cancelled due to initial lack of use....cancel the wifi, cancel the bus routes only a few people use....the government isn't a corporation, its there to help the people, not turn a profit. If only a few people were using a park would they pave it? If only a few people used the courts would they close them? Some things are just a public service, and WiFi is the public service of the 21st century.
Please just give me money, you can have your government-subsidized WIFI
You mean, give you back your money (um, if you pay taxes). Otherwise, you mean, give you my money. There is no "government" money. Honestly, where do these memes come from?
The company that provides the equipment is local; looks like a typical corrupt local govt. deal
That's hardly an indication of corruption - more like giving a local vendor the business so that the increase in their local economic activity pumps a piece of that company's revenue right back into the local tax base. That's more like recycling than corruption. Doesn't matter: I'd rather hear about "free" cell phone service, anyway. At least I'd be more likely to use it during those hours I spend sitting in traffic because my city can't get around to building decent roads with my other tax dollars.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Please don't get the impression that this was a city-wide project. In reality, the signal was only available over a few city blocks and one park in downtown Orlando.
This failure is clearly because of a poor location choice. The main branch of the Orange County library is only a block away from Lake Eola park where this project was centered, but no signal was available in the library when I was there earlier this year.
The real problem with this is how cities in the US are laid out. Cities in the northeast may have a lot of residents per square mile, but almost every where else, cities are very spread out. Maybe I'm only speaking for Miami here, but if you put WiFi in downtown no one would use it because nobody lives there. What is the city of Miami only has a population of 400,000. It's Miami-Dade County, where everyone inside considers themselves to live in Miami, which has the large population (2.3 million). Anyway, for this to work it's got to be done in residential areas, which are too spread out in most US cities (including Orlando).
I don't understand why a city would offer this, why don't they also offer free telephone service and newspapers, its just as crazy a concept. I can understand why you would do it at attractions for example Baltimores Inner Harbor area. It makes no sense at all and is a waste of money.
A country-wide wireless network is being built in Finland. It will use Flash-OFDM technology at frequencies around 450 MHz. Here's the story in Finnish.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I hope they didn't kill the wireless in the library downtown though; that works quite nicely and is a great benefit when visiting for relaxation or research.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
Although subsidized-WiFi isn't as important as subsidized health, housing, education, etc... at least it's a public service subsidy. Most government subsidies just go to a few corporate stockholders.
If you're going to push something like this in the civic sector, you need to push the non-laptop uses ... kiosks, for example. At malls we're starting to see health & human service kiosks provided by non-profits & public agencies. This would be a lot cheaper to do if WiFi was pervasive.
$1800:mo for 6 months pilot, extended to 17 months, means they planned to spend $10K, but spent $30K instead. For a system to support "up to 200 people at once" - which would have been $9:mo, just in costs, for a hotspot. That's not "municipal WiFi", that's a token gesture, doomed to fail.
How much could they have spent getting people to know about the service, known to everyone in business as "marketing"? And with that kind of tiny coverage, what possibility could it have had to be meaningful as "citywide"? None at all. Philadelphia's project will cost over $10M, complete coverage for 1.5M people. And it will not just be some "hotspot startup", it will be a complete coverage, so people can forget about the network, and just get access to Internet content, services and people. That has a good chance of success.
--
make install -not war
I've been a web developer and designer for 12 years. I currently work at Disney Internet Group.
We operate Disney.com, DisneyWorld.com, ESPN.com, Movies.com, Go.com, ABCNews.com, MLB.com, NFL.com, NBA.com, NASCAR.com, and *many* others.
Any other questions? Or would you like to continue mocking my technical ability?
"The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
Cool you know how to use Dreamweaver! U RAWK!!! I would get into this but a 20 something year old with 12 years of HTML experience is a tad bit too intimidating for me.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
It's Orlando, after all. They must have been wishing they were Manhattan.
- Relatively few people actually live in the City of Orlando. Most actually reside in the Orange and Seminole County suburbs far from downtown.
- Likewise, relatively few people visit downtown. Other than some offices and local government, downtown Orlando has been in a death spiral for at least a decade. The vast majority of economic, social, and cultural (what little there is) activity occurs in the suburbs as well.
- Since the majority of people who visit downtown are there for work, they probably have better internet connections from their comfy, air-conditioned cubicles.
- The City of Orlando has some good programs but suck at getting the word out. They are also disconnected from the needs of there residents. Just 4 blocks west of this hot spot is the Parramore ghetto, an area you'll never see in a "Happiest Place on Earth" advertising campaign.
In summary, with little motivation to visit downtown in the first place, I can't imagine many people out of the blue dragging their laptops to a downtown park for a free connection.Free city sponsored wireless makes sense in places like Austin and San Francisco which have sophisticated and centralized populations. For a blue collar, sprawling suburban metropolis like Orlando, it makes little sense.
Lake Eola is a 9 square block area. It is a single path surrounding a large lake. There are a few benches along the path, a small deck with 4 or five rocking chairs, and an outdoor stage with rows of metal-wire seats (100-200) where homeless people can usually be found sleeping and congregating. There are a few grassy areas, a kids playground and a few sculptures dotting the landscape. With that in mind, would you rather go to this park and either sit on a wire-seat with homeless people or on one of these benches with joggers and people feeding the pigeons and ducks in 90 degree(F) Orlando humidity without a power outlet or a table, or would you rather go to Stardust Video, a 5 min. drive from there, where they have a full espresso bar, a broad selection of beers, comfortable seating, your selection of popular and underground videos, occasional live music, and most importantly AIR CONDITIONING along with their free wifi?? I always went to Stardust.