Microsoft Pushing Municipal Wi-Fi

PreacherTom writes "Microsoft is moving to be the latest player to bring its formidable weight to bear in the growing Wi-Fi market. The software giant's recent deal to provide content and services through partnership with municipal Wi-Fi operator MetroFi in Portland, Ore., will intensify the battle between Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for online traffic. Why the focus? Content providers who capture the growing municipal Wi-Fi market will be in a better position to enjoy higher traffic to their sites and greater customer loyalty — and, as a result, grab a greater share of the $16 billion of expected online advertising dollars this year, according to consultancy eMarketer. 'It's a battle for eyeballs,' says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with the consultancy firm 'Directions on Microsoft'."

Comments

Re:Hmmm. Zune?

[nine-times]

Exactly. Imagine how much people will want those Zunes once they figure out all the terrific ways the Zune uses WiFi.

Re:How cost-effective are large WiFi networks?

[Stevecrox]

It depends on the set up and can prove worthwhile, my university is in the main city center with student accomadation surrounding it. WiFi was rolled out on campus and has complete coverage there.

But more to the point the university bagan to move over to a net based material system, since all lecture material is online, easy net access is a must, there were RJ45 sockets in the technology and engineering buildings, but there are around 12, 10 storey buidlings on campus, whats easier and cheaper

Putting 10 or more RJ45 sockets in around 1000 rooms, which are all managed through a fibre backbone
Or putting one or two access points on each floor tied into a fibre optic backbone

Sure governments don't have to but many resturants, bars, cafes and even banks do offer a WiFi service, the infrastructure exists, heck I can walk three miles away from the city centre and keep at least one WiFI network in range. If someone told me I could get my net access for free (or discounted) in exchange for running a router which would provide such a service I'd do it in a flash.

Re:Microsoft says, "Me Too!"

[tttonyyy]

You're forgetting - the reason Microsoft are so successful is because they're driven by profitability, not by being a technology leader. It just so happens that they're very good at taking other people's ideas and implementing them in a way that works and that people (in general) will want; they're also good at market research, it would seem.

Inventing new stuff is one thing - producing it in a mass-market easy-to-digest way is another. The latter is where the money is.

Re:Microsoft says, "Me Too!"

[bberens]

I've posted this before and I'll post it again. Apple and Microsoft are not technology innovators, they are technology integrators. They purchase technologies (or get them free in the case of BSD), integrate them, shiny them up, and then sell them for massive profits. For me, the linux kernel is useless. However, this company Redhat integrated a bunch of software into a single distribution, prettied it up with some artwork, and I really like it. Redhat is not primarily a technology innovator either. Most large companies are in fact not.

SSH

[alohatiger]

If they allow SSH I can simply tunnel through a proxy and skip all the ads.

If they don't allow SSH, it's a crippled connection (port 80 only?) that will also break other network services people expect (VPN, etc.).

Municipal WiFi should be provided as a service (free or otherwise) and should not be limited.

It's not about immediate application.

[Kipper the Llama]

There are a number of comments here talking about the current problems with municipal WiFi. Ok, this is obvious. But as wireless router power boosts, a greater variety of bandwidth opens for such use and so on, it seems reasonable to assume that municipal WiFi will become the primary way of accessing the internet for most internet users. With the amount of portable technologies exploiting wifi spreading (Nintendo's DS, Zune, etc.) city-dwellers will begin to expect such a service from someone in the way we now expect electricity or water. What Microsoft, Google, et al. are doing is jumping into the ring early in order to exploit it as a business advantage, which we can only hope works, because this may prevent wifi from becoming a utility in the classical sense.