• DocumentCode
    932165
  • Title

    Municipal Wi-Fi: big wave or wipeout?

  • Author

    Gibbons, James ; Ruth, Steve

  • Author_Institution
    George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA
  • Volume
    10
  • Issue
    3
  • fYear
    2006
  • Firstpage
    66
  • Lastpage
    71
  • Abstract
    This article describes some contemporary cases, explores the perspectives of municipalities, providers, and legislators, and examines some examples that could synchronize the various stake-holders\´ positions. We focus here mostly on US cases. Deployment of wireless services to cities and towns has become a topic of considerable controversy. At the center of the debate is the decision by municipalities to offer low-cost service to citizens who would normally be excluded from the Internet. This "digital divide" justification often pits large cities against incumbent telecommunications providers. Legislation at the national and state levels has been somewhat favorable to the providers so far, but this bias might be shifting as more large providers join, rather than oppose, municipal wireless projects
  • Keywords
    Internet; legislation; social aspects of automation; wireless LAN; Internet; municipal Wi-Fi; Cities and towns; Companies; Computer networks; Contracts; IP networks; Legislation; Local government; Web and internet services; Wireless application protocol; Wireless networks; municipal Wi-Fi; wireless services;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Internet Computing, IEEE
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    1089-7801
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/MIC.2006.60
  • Filename
    1631980