Over at Datamation.com, Mike Elgan has a brilliant take on
the debate over free Wi-Fi in cities.
Elgan’s elegant point is that trying to provide free
wireless Internet access for all in a city (like Houston) is a losing
proposition. His column,
“How Free
Wi-Fi Hurts the Poor,” nails it. It’s the best argument I’ve read on the
matter.
Here are some snippets:
Years
ago, we imagined the construction of citywide Wi-Fi in major cities across the
country. The idea was that everyone would be able to log on from anywhere --
the park, the bus, even apartments and houses in poorer neighborhoods. That
dream is quickly fading as it becomes clear that building costly wireless
network infrastructure where nobody uses it is a lousy idea. …
The City of Houston and
others working on such schemes will most likely squander a lot of public money
on Wi-Fi infrastructure that few people will use. People won't start using
Wi-Fi just because it's free. Too many poor families don't have the knowledge,
motivation or even the computers they need to start using Wi-Fi. Is the city
going to provide all that, too? …
The solution? If cities
want to motivate poor people to use Wi-Fi, they need to merely subsidize its
use.
It’s a matter near and dear to my heart. I use wireless
networks all the time. I hate paying the T-Mobile bill at Starbucks, but until
Starbucks offers the service for free, it’s the best bang for the buck.
Free wireless at your typical Internet cafes is not as
reliable. Plus, where I live, the college students clog the free Wi-Fi cafes. And the free citywide network I’ve tried -- MetroFi in Santa Clara,
California -- is frustrating. I don’t know where the hotspots are, so I’m
always dealing with a weak wireless signal. It’s just not a solution a serious
Internet user can tolerate.
As Elgan puts it:
Mayors of
America, listen up: Great Wi-Fi exists wherever people with expense accounts
congregate. If you want to replicate that success, just replicate the expense
accounts – don’t build the service yourself. Doing so is a recipe for disaster.
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