Cities Shop For Free Wi-Fi

CITIES SHOP FOR LOWER PRICES IN WI-FI: FREE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bobby White bobby.white@wsj.com]
While municipal wireless services are just a few years old, providers of the networks -- which often use a wireless technology dubbed Wi-Fi -- have mostly relied on subscription fees from users for revenue. Now the rise of a new municipal Wi-Fi business model dependent on Web advertising is putting the first wave of municipal wireless providers at risk. There are more than 250 cities in the U.S. that have deployed or are planning to deploy citywide municipal Wi-Fi. The municipal wireless market is expected to expand to $512 million by 2010 from $88 million this year, says Godfrey Chua, a wireless analyst with research firm IDC. He notes that most of the current deployments -- in cities such as Philadelphia, Anaheim, Calif., and Chaska, Minn. -- use a subscriber-based business model.
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