Chicago Cancels Municipal Wi-Fi Plan

thatshortkid writes "The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a proposed plan for municipal wi-fi in Chicago has fallen apart. The story cites contract disputes and the falling price of residential broadband as reasons for the talks collapsing. 'Chicago officials had intended that the city would offer infrastructure, but no cash, to a carrier that would use its own funds to build the network here. EarthLink and AT&T Inc. submitted proposals to the city, but after months of negotiations the parties were unable to reach agreement. The companies sought a commitment from Chicago to be an "anchor tenant," agreeing to pay to use the Wi-Fi network to support city services, but the city declined ... Even if Chicago declines to back a municipal wireless network, city residents soon will gain more Internet connection options. Sprint Nextel Corp. is building a wireless WiMax network here that is due to offer service next spring.'"

Re:Public Works

[packetmon]

You state: Internet should be right up there with power, water, transportation, etc. It's already a given that it's a key component of growth and future development. Incorrect. The world works fine without the Internet. We were working fine in the 70's and 80's. We just work more faster and have become more productive with it. However most would say we've hit our plateau with the Internet. As for your comment on: "We need to start treating it more like that instead of a big giveaway to the monopolies that we're broken up in the 80's (at&t). So much for deregulation." There is little in terms of monopolization as many paint out on the Internet. From my POV I see little(r) companies complaining about bigger companies charging less and forcing them out but what about the complaints that hey, those bigger companies spent their own monies laying out the infrastructure. Not only did they lay out the infrastructure, some actually DO share it for the little guys. Its never enough though. If its that big an issue, some of those little guys should take out loans and build their own lines so they won't have to worry about being bullied. Bottom line.

Re:Falling Prices?

[ScentCone]

With every day, I become more disgusted with the corporate greed stranglehold.

So, what do you propose instead? That YOU get to mandate what services are provided, and that we are all charged taxes (pushed through a notoriously inefficient beaurocracy) to support those services - which, in turn, are built and provided by private sector contractors and infrastructure companies ANYWAY... but which now everyone is forced to pay for, whether they want it or not? Your urge to make us all participate in funding what you want is the actually "greedy" perspective, here. You want it, and you want ME to pay for it.

Re:It's Like Water

[Spy Hunter]

Municipal WiFi is a stupid idea. It's completely impossible to get the kind of blanket fast, reliable coverage people should be able to expect from their Internet connection. WiFi's range is just too short and buildings attenuate the signal. You'd have to put a router every 50 feet over the entire city, including inside private property! Furthermore, mesh networking sucks; always has and always will. It multiplies the packet loss and latency and divides the bandwidth for each hop you go through.

Municipal WiMax, on the other hand, makes tons of sense. I love the idea of a public utility wireless broadband service to provide some competition for lazy telecoms; WiFi just isn't the way to do it. WiMax all the way. Use things for their intended purpose; that's my motto.