Are Boosters Liars? No, They're Pioneers and We Need Them

So, let's hear it for our pioneers in the municipal wireless field! (Sorry if I left anyone out you guys, but I'm drawing the line on significant personal influence that stood out from the pack, in addition to talent and input - there have been a whole host of players who've made a contribution, but these particular individuals have stood out for me by their personalities and their actions).

* Pioneer Journalists: Esme Vos (muniwireless.com), Glen Fleishmann (wifinetnews.com), Sam Churchill (dailywireless.org); Om Malik (gigaom.com)
* Pioneer Conferences: Daniel Aghion (W2i Digital Cities); Esme Vos (MuniWireless)
* Pioneer Consultants: Greg Richardson (Civitium), Scott Akrie/Eric Daversa (NetLogix)
* Pioneer Equipment Vendors: Dave Hanna, Ron Sege et al (Tropos); Paul Butcher (Intel)
* Pioneer WISP: Bill Tolpegin (Earthlink)
* Pioneer Community Advocate: Sascha Meinrath (CUWiN)
* Pioneer Deployments: Cerritos, Corpus Christi, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Chaska, Tempe, St. Cloud, Anaheim

This is an unscientific poll of one, but I've been in this space since 2003, and these are the pioneer individuals, groups and deployments from my perspective that have stood out as exceptional. They each stood up and took arrows in the back by taking strong positions and yelling from the mountaintops. So here in this space, I'd like to publicly thank each of these folks for their hard work, bravery, insights, and chutzpa.

And now a word in defense of Wi Fi. These individuals saw the potential of using a lowly, limited LAN technology as a club to start beating over the heads of incumbent giants who had been unwilling to extend broadband at a pace to match leaders in other countries. I call that creative. On the sale side, they saw a need among municipal leaders and filled it. On the buy side, they saw a new technology and tried it. Thank goodness!

My second disclosure: I think that unlicensed Wi Fi mesh has its warts and has been oversold in the past. But despite its shortcomings, it remains a very useful and affordable technology that can do amazing things when applied correctly. I think that WiMAX will be a very good complement in the near term, and that while Wi Fi mesh goes well with lots of technologies, it will continue to face challenges as a stand-alone solution when it over reaches, when the strategy is not thought out, and when the community is not well informed.

My third disclosure: I think that large-scale deployments are as yet an unproven application of Wi Fi Mesh and not necessarily the best way to go. I believe that small-scale deployments make more sense at this stage, for a variety of reasons (see my arguments on MetroNanoNet). But big city deployments are still a good thing - we are moving down this path so I think we should forge ahead and do our best to make them work. The upside of large-scale Wi fi Mesh networks still far outweighs the downside, the market wants them, they stimulate the rest of the industry and they generate lots of press, raising awareness.

Even with my own opinions, I still have to acknowledge these folks for what they've accomplished so far. They're the ones who have pretty much created something out of nothing. That's what a pioneer does - "goes where no man has gone before." It's messy, but the results are positive and we need the growth and progress that pioneers provide..

Let's consider life without Wi Fi Mesh for a moment. Here's what we have on the flip side, over in the incumbent telecom and cable space - thanks to Fred Wilson, in his blog, A VC.

We have four companies that largely control the last mile into our homes in this country, two telcos and two cable companies each control significant market share. Some of their CEOs have gone on record that they want to use tiered pricing to fund new development on their networks. Sounds good, but its crap.

In our country, all the innovation has happened in the startup world. The startup ISPs and CLECs are the ones who first rolled out the services that the telcos and cable operators are now making money with. But would they have rolled them out if they hadn't been put at competitive risk by the startups? I think not.

I'm not necessarily casting stones the incumbents way either, because I think that these two industries have brought us a long way over the past century and that there are great companies among them. But I feel that at this point in time, they could definitely do more, faster. Most of the leaders in those two industries need to be more open to new solutions. They're milking the cow, focused on leveraging their considerable political influence to hold on to what they have, and way too comfortable to move the ball forward on broadband deployments at a pace that would most benefit the rest of us. They need the burr in the saddle that municipal wireless has become.

I'd echo Fred's comments on ISPs and CLECs with regard to the pioneers in this still very-new municipal wireless field. Would we have come half as far as we have without our pioneers? Would we have state prohibitions against municipal wireless? Who will offer an alternative to the incumbents' preferred pace of change? Where will our leadership on broadband strategy come from?

So, how harshly should we judge the statements made by pioneers and early stage boosters? Let's not. Instead, let's take what they say with a grain of salt, draw our own conclusions, and enjoy the benefits of all the energy they have poured into making something out of nothing. And let's keep in mind that our cell phones still drop in some places ("Can you hear me now?") - but we love them just the same- and that wired networks do not provide us with all that they could - but we still stay hooked up and pay our bills.

Finally, we should be wary of applying the rules of established industries to fledgling industries. Why not acknowledge that we're in the middle of creating something here and be more tolerant of each other?

On the rare occasions when I cook, I'd prefer that my guests appreciate my efforts and judge me by how good my dishes taste out in the dining room, (or by the fact that I tried), and not criticize the mess I left behind in the kitchen.

Having said my two-cents worth, I predict that human nature being what it is, we'll have a lot more of this type of critique and point / counterpoint in the blogosphere, as the larger municipal wireless deployments roll out. Hold on to your hats!