Silicon Valley Cities Pause, Reflect On Muni Wi-Fi CommitmentsSilicon Valley Cities Pause, Reflect On Muni Wi-Fi Commitments

Officials from six cities and the Northern California county of Santa Clara have launched a major review and cost-benefit analysis to determine whether and to what extent they should participate in the massive, 44-city Wireless Silicon Valley project.

Wireless Silicon Valley would, at completion, be one of the largest municipal wireless networks in the world. It'll be built by Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a consortium comprising Cisco Systems, IBM, SeaKay, and Azulstar. It has already suffered delays: the project was originally scheduled to have at least two one-square-mile concept networks (in Palo Alto and San Carlos) up and running by now. But work hasn't started yet.

The cities reviewing participation are Palo Alto, Campbell, San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, and Milpitas.

The Santa Clara communities are asking: "What are the needs, and how can we put a value to those needs on a city-by-city, department-by-department level?" said Craig Settles, a wireless networking consultant who's working with the cities to help carry out the analysis, in an interview.

Northrop Grumman is acting as the lead systems integrator for Santa Clara County on prospective wireless development, and Settles and Systems Definition Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based technology consulting firm, have been hired to carry out the actual assessment. Since Santa Clara County represents several of the primary potential customers for the Wireless Silicon Valley network, the analysis project could affect the plans for the ambitious system stretching from Santa Cruz to South San Francisco

The Silicon Valley network will cost $100 million to $150 million to build and is expected to serve several million residents and businesspeople. The cities are not footing the bill to build the network, said Seth Fearey, the executive director of Smart Valley, an organization promoting public access to information technology in the Silicon Valley region. But they will be asked to commit to paying for a certain level of service once the system is in place. An early conclusion of the analysis, said Settles, is that the project as initially envisioned "is probably too massive to sell and execute."

The experience of Santa Clara and the surrounding communities mirrors that of other cities that, seeing the delays and setbacks that have beset early municipal Wi-Fi network projects, are taking more of a wait-and-see approach to the fast-spreading technology.

In Milwaukee, where a citywide wireless network was scheduled for completion by March 2008, officials with Midwest Fiber Networks, the primary contractor on the system, said last week the project won't be ready until at least summer of 2009 -- and added that the company could walk away from the $20 million Wi-Fi project altogether if it doesn't turn out to be financially viable.

Today Forrester Research is releasing a report that echoes Settles' comments about the Wireless Silicon Valley project. "Funding for the municipal wireless project should be linked to the use-cases that the city has laid out for the network," says the report, which is called "Monetizing Municipal Wireless Networks" and authored by analyst Sally Cohen.

Based on interviews with representatives from 27 cities and communities involved in wireless networking projects, the report concludes that only municipal Wi-Fi projects with clearly defined business models and proven ROI cases will succeed in the long run. With consumer adoption of wireless Internet access still relatively low, even in the home, "it's a bumpy, unpaved road to realizing the value of muni wireless," Cohen writes.

In Santa Clara, different department heads and city government officials have widely differing views of the value of municipal Wi-Fi, said Settles.

The Wireless Silicon Valley vendors and project leaders "have got to be clear that what they're offering as a service is what the customers want to buy," he said, "or they run the risk of losing the very people they're trying to serve."