Square Off Over Wi-Fi In The Town SquareSquare Off Over Wi-Fi In The Town Square

But even modest plans for wireless networks can attract the attention of telecom carriers. "Public safety is just the start--the network might prove excellent for commercial applications, too," Swanson says of the Jamestown project. Alexandria will evaluate the success of its wireless initiative with an eye to extending services to residents and businesses. The city hopes it can work cooperatively with telecom carriers on that goal, should it materialize, says Craig Fifer, the city's E-government manager.

In some instances, it makes sense for cities to go it alone. They often have the existing infrastructure to build wireless networks, such as street-light poles and government buildings where they can easily mount wireless equipment (carriers have to lease those facilities). But cities also face costs and challenges, such as creating systems and services for billing, maintaining, and servicing wireless networks.

Outsourcing the work and at least part of the infrastructure is one solution. Addison, Texas, tapped Internet service provider RedMoon Inc. to offer residential users a wireless Internet service for $17 a month. (A state bill proposed last spring to restrict Texas municipalities' ability to offer communication services has since failed.)

Like Philadelphia, many municipalities see free or low-cost wireless access as a boon to businesses, particularly smaller ones. "It's more important to the smaller fish than the bigger fish who can afford it," says Hamid Khaleghipour, Addison's IT director. Addison is one of the Dallas area's most popular tourist destinations, with more than 170 restaurants, 22 hotels, and shopping. Restaurants can benefit from wireless by marketing themselves to tourists as places to have a great meal and check E-mail at the same time, Khaleghipour says.

Rio Rancho, N.M., deployed a Wi-Fi system in October to cover 103 square miles using equipment from Proxim Corp. and services from Azulstar Networks. "We're eager to have businesses come and locate here," says Peggy McCarthy, assistant to the city administrator. Rio Rancho wants to show businesses that "we're high-tech and ready to embrace innovation," McCarthy says. "They'll want to stay."

Even more cities are expected to go wireless if WiMax, the next generation of Wi-Fi, delivers as promised. Today, a wireless LAN can reach data speeds of more than 50 Mbps over distances of a few hundred feet, while third-generation cellular has a two-mile reach and offers speeds of about 2 Mbps. WiMax promises data speeds of 70 Mbps over distances of more than 30 miles. That means a city could build a larger network with less equipment to deploy and manage. The market for fixed WiMax is expected to reach $12.4 billion by 2010, according to WinterGreen Research. But there won't be standard WiMax equipment until early next year.

Rio Rancho is using Proxim's pre-WiMax system of several hundred transmitters that have been mounted throughout the city, which even works for cars traveling at speeds of up to 55 mph. For coastal cities, it reaches boats 15 miles offshore. St. Cloud, Fla., is deploying a pre-WiMax system to cover the 15-square-mile city. It plans to have the entire city covered using 300 mesh nodes from Topos this fall.

If WiMax and next-generation cellular become a reality, will the United States be filled with thousands of independent wireless networks? Or will they all interact somehow? Technology that could bring unity to municipal wireless networks--called an IP multimedia subsystem--is in the early stages of development. Carriers will likely use the subsystem in their networks to allow multiple types of networks, including cellular, Wi-Fi, and wireline, to talk to each other. First responders, for example, wouldn't have to restart applications every time they moved between networks, and network interference would decrease. The subsystem, however, won't be widely deployed for five to seven years, Forrester Research analyst Ellen Daley predicts. In the meantime, cities may have worked through their interference problems between neighboring networks as more municipalities deploy wireless.

One thing is for sure: Cities with ambitious wireless-networking plans aren't likely to back down on their vision of the future. "Our wireless initiatives are tied to our social program, designed to improve the lives of our underserved communities," Philadelphia's Neff says. "That's one thing the telecoms and the cable companies will never do for our cities."

Photo by David Deal