Muni WiFi - Stop the Insanity - You are Making Me (more) Insane
I can't take it any longer. What is up with these (crazy) cities all over the planet spearheading municipal WiFi projects?!? I have said for almost a year that if I was a tax payer in Philadelphia or countless other wreckless cities I would sue the local government for misuse of my tax dollars. I predict a class action lawsuit or the like against a US city within a year. I do understand that taxpayer money is not funding the rollouts...but who is funding the city employee's time working on these projects?
What is going through a politicians mind when they 'come up with the idea' that their city should have ubiquitous WiFi coverage for the masses? Maybe ubiquitious housing, education or medical aid is a more likely target?!? I'm telling you it makes me crazy. Why don't they start dealing in electricity, cable TV or countless other commercial services?!? Does WiFi makes their citizens smarter or something? I haven't seen such a study.
I predict that there will be free WiFi coverage in most major cities throughout North America as ISP's beef up their networks (hell, I will be one of the people doing it...so I can atleast speak factually about one company). WiFi nodes are so inexpensive these days and with the great open source meshing protocols it is remarkably easy to extend off gateways everywhere. Today we have been experimenting with meraki mini's and their meshing work. Over the past 12 months I have also worked with 4G Systems devices, MIT Roofnet systems as well as Meru Networks. Each of these systems will extend any gateway in to the WiFi arena for little cost ($49 in the case of Meraki !!).