Municipal WiFi Moves Ahead In Houston

Highlander404 sends word of one city that is bucking the trend of failing city Wi-Fi projects: Houston is investing most of the $5 million Earthlink paid to get out of its muni Wi-Fi contract to build out 10 free wireless network "bubbles" in low-income parts of the city. Access points will be in city-owned facilities to keep costs down. Houston's mayor said that over the long term the bubbles could be connected and the areas between them added to the network. The activation of the first of these zones was announced Monday. Upload and download speeds are said to be 3 Mbps.

Comments

1 bubble != 1 access point

[langelgjm]

So 10 access points costs $5M....I want to be the guy who gets paid to install those...

From TFA: "Each bubble will include about 15 public access points at schools, city facilities and community organizations within the area."

Also, it's not $5 million, it's $3.5 million: "The company had to pay the city $5 million after defaulting on a contract to build a citywide wireless Internet network last year. On Monday, Mayor Bill White announced the city will use about $3.5 million of that money to build 10 free wireless network "bubbles" in low-income parts of Houston to give residents access they otherwise might do without." And I'm sure that money includes more than just the access point: think all the infrastructure, etc. to support them.

Re:1 bubble != 1 access point

[langelgjm]

That's okay, it also gives me a chance to be modded up :-)

You'd think they'd LEARN from Earthlink's bailing

[penguin_dance]

As a native Houstonian, so I think I can speak knowledgeably about this. The fact that Earthlink was willing to cough up $5 million to get out of a contract should tell you something. Obviously they realized this would be money losing proposition. Unfortunately, trust Houston to ignore the problems in other cities and plow ahead anyway. And yes, Earthlink defaulted, but that money now belongs to the taxpayers. It could be MUCH better used--such as hiring more police and fire personnel--than handing out "free" access at taxpayer expense.

Putting these bubbles in "low income" areas makes absolutely no sense, unless they plan to also put in computers or some sort of cybercafe. Most of the people living there are not going to be sporting lap tops. And if they have a computer they're unlikely to have a wireless modem. They'll expect to be given one for free though. These are not nice parts of town. I used to live (briefly) not far from area highlighted on the map in the story. If you stand outside at night (not advisable), you very often hear gunfire. A murdered prostitute was found in the field across from the condos I lived in. Lots of drug dealing. This is not indicative of Houston--it has plenty good areas. I make this point in that if they do set up any sort of computer kiosk places in areas like this, it's going to have to have 24 hour security.

Most of the people taking advantage of this are going to be small-medium businesses who will be milking the free bandwidth, not lower income families. Houston libraries already have computers and internet access, this will give others the ability to bring their own computer--but again, I wouldn't in these areas of town. I think this is going to be a colossal waste of tax payer money.