The municipal wireless market is undergoing a correction, but the re-evaluation of business models eventually will benefit the space and the emergence of WiMAX technology offers new possibilities, according to a Yankee Group webinar last week.
After the now-collapsing adoption of “for-free” models that characterized many early municipal deployments, new models must take into consideration an actual business case and potential revenue opportunities or operational savings for both the service providers and cities with a vested interested in the network, according to Roberta Wiggins, research fellow with Yankee Group.
“The reality is that we’re at a critical juncture in the newly emerging marketplace,” said Wiggins.
Surveillance, enterprise applications move forward
While public-access projects may be stalled, Wiggins said, plans for networks that allow traffic management and video surveillance are still moving forward. Other possibilities to justify the building of municipal networks might include enabling broadband access for old (or new) government buildings without the expensive investment of fiber connections; wireless meter reading; and enterprise service applications that may draw new development. However, Wiggins said, cities need assistance in developing their business models. Service-level agreements also are needed.
Wiggins said that WiMAX will be a complementary technology to Wi-Fi, not competitive. She said that Wi-Fi may well be maintained at the edge of WiMAX networks until WiMAX devices have sufficient penetration to drive usage.
Wiggins noted that when it comes to deployment of WiMAX for municipal networks, the U.S. is behind many other countries. She pointed out examples from Canada to Singapore where WiMAX is being deployed for a variety of purposes, from digital inclusion to mobile health care and surveillance.
Angela Singhal Whiteford, director of municipal wireless services for Nortel Networks Ltd., said that municipalities need to consider a number of factors, including which applications can drive network usage and save a city money (such as mobilizing their workforce to provide better city services to residents) and what agencies or businesses could be “anchor tenants” of the network.
Whiteford cited several examples of Nortel customers who are in the process of deploying WiMAX for various purposes including:
● Wind Telecom in the Dominican Republic, which plans to use WiMAX to provide a nationwide wireless broadband network set to launch in four metropolitan areas.
● Quad-Cities Online, which is working on a WiMAX network that will make mobile broadband wireless available to more than 400,000 people in Moline/East Moline and Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport and Bettendork, Iowa. The alliance between a local newspaper publisher and Black Hawk College, which controls wireless spectrum, will allow a variety of uses, such as providing mobile access to college students and also allowing local reporters to post news reports from the field.
● In southeastern Oklahoma, Pine Cellular and Choctaw Electric Cooperative are partnering to provide WiMAX service to rural communities. The initiative balances community and company benefits-such as free wireless service to local police and fire departments and public schools, and improving communications between utility crews and their home office.
