Municipal Wi-Fi - A Promise Unfulfilled?

An anonymous reader writes "Jeff Merron at InformationWeek writes about the problems with municipal Wi-Fi, and how despite the high hopes of cities across the country there hasn't been much success deploying it in reality. He also examines the few successful applications of the technology, and tries to explore why more projects don't make it out of their infancy. 'Thus far, there have been a few true municipal Wi-Fi success stories and several spectacular failures. But more than half of municipal Wi-Fi networks remain only in the planning stages. The broad consensus among analysts and providers is that the only viable business models will be centered around municipal government applications, which appear to be able to provide cities with the ability to provide both better and more cost-efficient services for residents and increase city revenue. This will ensure that providers like EarthLink can recoup their capital costs within a few years.'"

Comments

Using a laptop on a sunny day

[spinfan]

...

sit in a park on a sunny summer morning, pull out your laptop, and get some work done without missing the good weather Can anyone read a laptop screen outside on a sunny day? Not me.

And misspelled, too!

[PontifexPrimus]

I'd really like to know, too - especially since some people really have clearly not understood what a "tag" is supposed to be.

• It is not a way of answering a question asked in the submission text! There is nothing more useless than those "yes", "no", and "maybe" tags cropping up every single time a question mark shows up.
• It is not a tool to correct spelling errors! Ok, I'd actually prefer some direct feedback system for that that doesn't get buried as "off-topic" in a comment 150+ down the line, but the tag system is not intended to be used as a notification tool. Especially if the mistake does get corrected, and the tag now consists of an arbitrary out-of-context word.
• If you have to give "clever" tags, please, please make sure you get at least the spelling right. This story was tagged "sluethinadvertising"(sic), which I assume to be a very poor attempt at a pun; but even then it's probably supposed to be "sleuth"! If you can't even spell words from your own language, you have no business in adding tags!