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.

Gulfton Wireless Bubble?

[snsh]

I think somebody in Texas is pulling a prank with acronyms.

Re:1 bubble != 1 access point

[Qwavel]

Actually, I find the cost of some of these muni-wifi projects to be incredibly low.

When you compare these costs to the billions being spent to roll out 3+G networks they are peanuts.

Re:there is no such thing as free

[ribit]

OK.. "Free at the point of need or provision" We need more of these, partly to combat the silly ideas of those that would try to make it a crime to 'attempt to join an open network'

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.

Re:More bubbles?

[penix1]

What happens when, just like the .com and housing ones, this bubble bursts? $3.5 million down the drain, that's what.

I don't think so. This is going into areas where the broadband providers don't tread. From TFS:

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.

Houston is doing what all governments do. It is providing services it sees as necessary that the private sector can't or won't do. It's funny how when a community decides to provide a service the private sector may be in they scream foul but when that service becomes unprofitable they want out as fast as possible. The question is what other consessions did Earthlink get out of Houston? A company willing to pay $$$ to get out of a contract has done the bean counting before signing and you can bet your bottom dollar that those beans fall in Earthlink's favor.