Municipal Wi-Fi May Now be More Important Than Ever

Municipal Wi-fi has been seen, in general, as a failure.  This is due to many underlying factors as discussed in this 2007 Slate article.  As cities struggle with the concept of free/cheap internet access for all, telco's and cableco's continue to tighten their grip on consumers.

In September 2007, when the article I linked to above was published and a point in time where several cities had tried and failed to implement Wi-Fi networks, Social media was in it's infancy, the iPhone was only 3 months old, and mobility was hardly a concern for most daily cell phone users.  Now, we're on the verge of smartphone use surpassing feature phones (phones with a few features such as web, email, and games), Facebook and Twitter are among the most popular sites on the Internet, and location based services such as Foursquare are gaining popularity.  Currently, 50% of smartphone users are connecting to wi-fi networks, presumably to avoid outrageous data charges on their 3G data plans.

These factors provide significant evidence that people are craving a 24/7 connection to social media and the Internet and would greatly benefit from having access to a free or low-cost, high-speed data network.