Developing Municipal Wireless Infrastructure by CATHERINE MIDDLETON
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TECHNOLOGY PARIS , France, is a leader in providing free Wi-Fi access to both residents and visitors. Developing Municipal Wireless Infrastructure BY CATHERINE MIDDLETON In the middle of this decade, there was great interest in the municipal service delivery, and improving citizens’ access to the development of municipal wireless networks. Recognizing that web. Large-scale, high profile projects were planned in cities like internet access was becoming an essential service, Toronto, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. In 2007, the municipalities considered building wireless networks as a means website muniwireless.com estimated that there were more than of fostering economic development, improving efficiency of 400 ‘muni Wi-Fi’ projects planned, under development or www.publicsectordigest.com Summer 2009 Public Sector Digest 3 7 The early hype and excitement has been replaced with a “” much more realistic outlook on what wireless networks can and cannot do for municipalities. actually operational in the United States. By late 2007, however, because the private company could generate revenues by it became evident that the espoused benefits of municipal providing internet access to local residences. wireless networks were not as easy to achieve as initially anticipated. Networks were abandoned, scaled back or delayed, It is now clear that, to be viable, this approach requires an as Earthlink, Google, MetroFi and other corporate partners ongoing financial commitment from the municipality as an exited the municipal wireless sector. Toronto’s network, anchor tenant, but the municipality does not receive any share of OneZone, was not a municipal wireless project, but its network revenues. Some networks are developed in partnership developer, Toronto Hydro Telecom, initially proposed covering with private sector companies, with costs and revenues shared a 630 km 2 area to blanket Toronto with wireless internet access. between municipalities and their technology providers It was anticipated that dividends from network revenues would (Québec’s Xittel has been active in many such partnerships). flow to the City through its ownership of Toronto Hydro. A six Additionally, in a number of Canadian cities, non-profit km 2 pilot zone was developed in Toronto’s downtown core, but community wireless networking groups operate free Wi-Fi the larger network was never built. networks serving public spaces. Examples include Île Sans Fil in Montréal, ZAP Québec, and Wireless Toronto. Their In 2008, the company and its assets were sold to Cogeco Cable, objectives include increasing connectivity in neighbourhoods effectively privatizing the OneZone network, which continues to and fostering community engagement. operate today on a fee-for-service basis. San Francisco’s proposed municipal network was cancelled, replaced by an Regardless of the operational model adopted by municipalities, initiative from a company called Meraki that is slowly extending wireless networks can be public or private. Public networks are Wi-Fi coverage throughout that city. Wireless Philadelphia has built with the intention of providing internet access to members become the Digital Impact Group, retaining its focus on of the community, and also provide service to anyone who is bringing internet connectivity to underserved communities but within range of the network (that is, there is no requirement that no longer committed to wireless as its primary networking a network user be a taxpayer in the municipality). Public technology. networks are not necessarily free networks, but they are open to the public. Today, the municipal wireless landscape is much different from what it was just a few years ago. The early hype and excitement Private networks are not open to community members, and are has been replaced with a much more realistic outlook on what used to support municipal operations. For instance, municipal wireless networks can and cannot do for municipalities. There wireless networks can be used to provide internet connectivity are fewer projects under development, but those that are being to mobile workers, to support voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone planned are now generally based on solid business cases. Project service, to allow for remote monitoring (e.g. cameras, meters), leaders are often willing to share their successes and failures, to provide access to maps and geographical data, and to support and it is understood that building municipal networks is not a public safety applications. Hybrid networks can serve public and simple task. private users, with the two types of usage managed separately. I. II. FORMS OF WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE UNMET EXPECTATIONS Municipalities have engaged with wireless networks in a variety In the early days of municipal wireless networking, it was the of different ways. In some instances, municipalities own and public networks that generated the most attention and interest. operate the entire network infrastructure (e.g. Fredericton, New The idea of public networks was appealing. Wireless networks Brunswick’s Fred-eZone). Others engage a private company to could be set up using ‘free’, licence-exempt spectrum, build, own, and operate the network. Initially, some believed that minimizing the cost and complexity of providing service. this model could provide cities with free network services, Municipalities could generate goodwill in their communities by 38 Public Sector Digest Summer 2009 www.publicsectordigest.com providing free internet access. A municipal Wi-Fi network could not pay for the cost of provisioning municipal networks. For help in branding the municipality as progressive and municipalities considering building new wireless networks, it technologically savvy, and it could help to attract business and makes sense to plan for coverage in indoor locations (e.g., city tourists to the community and encourage local community hall, other municipal buildings, community centres, sports engagement and spur economic development. facilities, libraries, etc.) as well as selected high traffic outdoor locations. As part of the network planning exercise, consideration There was no doubt that citizens and visitors would appreciate should be given to lighting conditions, comfortable seating, and access to Wi-Fi networks in the community, but this did not the provision of power. translate into a willingness to pay for such service. Some plans to offer free service relied upon advertising revenues to cover As the excitement over municipal wireless networking fades, the municipalities’ costs, while others were dependent upon the more municipalities are investigating the development of their provider signing up sufficient numbers of paying subscribers to own fibre-optical network assets. By building their own fibre cover the costs of free service in specified public spaces. Neither networks (which offer reliable, high capacity, high quality of these proved terribly successful, and municipalities that were connectivity), or by leveraging existing networking assets intending to pay the costs themselves discovered that building within their communities (e.g., local utility companies may have wireless networks was not as cheap as initially expected. fibre-optical networks), the business case for both public and private wireless networks is improved. In addition to supplying Many problems were encountered in the initial network builds. reliable backhaul for the wireless network, access to municipal One challenge was negotiating access to utility poles in order to fibre offers several advantages: First, municipalities have much mount the Wi-Fi radios used to provide connectivity. Some more control and flexibility in provisioning their own municipalities could arrange access, but another issue was that communication networks. Second, coordinated planning of light poles did not have a 24-hour power supply. The tops of wired and wireless network coverage is possible. Finally, high fiberglass utility poles often collapsed when radio connections quality wired connectivity can be made available for municipal were tightened, and some poles needed to be reinforced to bear offices. the weight of networking equipment. Leaves on trees proved to be a barrier to Wi-Fi signals, meaning that networks that worked Indeed, the reason that the City of Fredericton is able to offer in the winter did not work so well in the summer. Additionally, free Wi-Fi through its popular Fred-eZone network is that the early estimates of the coverage areas of wireless radios were wireless network makes use of excess capacity available on the found to be too optimistic, meaning that more equipment was City’s community fibre network. Through its municipally needed to provide coverage to targeted areas. The need to owned company eNovations, Fredericton developed its own provide ‘backhaul’, which connects a wireless network to the fibre-optical network. This network not only provides backhaul internet, was not always well understood. for the Fred-eZone, but also provides affordable, high-quality broadband connectivity to local businesses and government. Another issue with public wireless networks was that many Wi-Fi networks were engineered to cover outdoor areas only. In The future of municipal broadband is in fibre networks. There is instances in which providers were hoping to persuade residential growing expertise in the municipal sector regarding the customers to subscribe to their networks, the customers had to development of fibre networks, and there are reliable purchase additional