What's a "Small" Town to Do? Start with Hospitality

Fact is, we are in the very beginnings of this new industry, and though much has been written recently about growing pains, disappointments, and problems in these first deployments, after all, isn't that sort of thing to be expected at this early stage? What will be interesting over the next year is to see how the private and public sector deal with the opportunities and risks they encounter as they move forward.

What's driving all this interest from all these small towns? It's pretty plain to me - broadband has become an essential service - many think it is rapidly becoming a "utility," and I agree. Problem is, that new status has yet to sink in - it's not yet acknowledged as a utility and most approaches to bringing in more broadband so far don't treat it as such. What these myriad city officials recognize is that broadband has not only become a useful tool to make their administration task more effective, but it has also become an attractive service.

When city officials take steps to ensure that their cities have this service available, they're demonstrating hospitality, not unlike a host does when they make sure their guests are comfortable and have what they need during their visit. Hospitality, after all, is a key ingredient that is vital to making a city stand out from the rest of the pack. Hospitality is a great place for cities to start when they think about broadband - towns both big and small, should be asking themselves, "What steps, both big and small, can my city take to use broadband as a tool to make my city/town more welcoming?"

The state of this new industry is a topic under intense discussion these days. Here's a sample of some of the industry press I've run across in the past few days.

In Municipal Wireless a Questionable Business Model? Nope...Been There, Seen That!, industry veteran (and my good friend) Eric DaVersa picks up this hospitality theme in a different way. He notes the similarities in market development between cities bringing in broadband access options and what hotels did a few years back. As you will recall, we saw broadband access brought in by Hospitality Industry pioneers as a premium service, only to have it evolve quickly to an amenity that is offered for "free" in order to make their venues more attractive and competitive. The same progression can be expected in the muniicipal wireless industry, as early adopters seek to cover their capital costs with business models that require payment - initially. But as the technology becomes more affordable (lower costs) and the service becomes more widely adopted, it becomes an expected amenity widely offered to attract visitors. Sound argument, worked for air conditioning back in the early 20th Century in the South.

The recent MuniWireless Conference in New England became a forum for this discussion as well. Andy Oram, an editor at O'Reilly Media, offered a succinct commentary that challenges the direction the municipal wireless industry took over the past two years, and suggests that cities will need to add to their technological strengths if they are to adapt and take advantage of the potential of this trend.

Every city is unique. You cannot bring in a consultant and just expect solutions to fall into place. The geographic and demographic details of each region make all the difference in the world as to what solution to choose. Just to give a feel for the mind-boggling diversity of subtleties a town has to look at, here are a few I've heard of:

* What local, state, and federal rules govern the use of poles
* Where the hills, tall buildings, and other barriers to wireless are
* Who has to buy in to the solution politically
* What areas can be reasonable left off the grid because they're in unpopulated zones and would be expensive to reach
* Usage patterns of the neighborhood population: middle-aged people do more web surfing and teenagers more high-bandwidth downloads of things such as games and videos (see MuniWireless conference: city politicians need to understand the lay of the LAN).

So, we find ourselves at a cross roads, in need of a map. Not sure if this trend is for real? See this article cited in GigaOm - 53% of US Homes have broadband, which confirms the progression of broadband and ties progression of broadband to income.

And we're not done yet. We've learned over the years that any technology trend can be spurred on to mass acceptance by a Killer App, in this case, I predict the Killer App driving adoption of metropolitan broadband will be VOIP telephones being used on citywide wireless networks. Cities that have a Wi Fi cloud will offer their citizens a very attractive option in addition to simple broadband access - residents as well as visitors will be able to significantly reduce their cellular phone bills by using a dual-use cell phone, but switching over to the LAN when under the local wireless cloud. The future, it's coming.

Substantial Market Niche Emerging for Wi-Fi/Cellular Phones

In-Stat e-mail update June 13, 2007