What the WAGZone can tell Chicago (Atlanta, Philadelphia, whoever).
Municipal WiFi is imploding. Chicago has abandoned its wireless effort. Philadelphia is having trouble getting theirs going. Earthlink has just gutted its municipal wireless division. So lately I have been getting an interesting question. With so much burning wreckage on the wireless information highway, why is the WAGZone cruising along? The WAGZone is different – and the differences make all the difference.
What is the WAGZone? The Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGZone) is our WiFi system in Athens, Georgia covering most of the downtown business district. In 2003 when the NMI built the WAGZone, Intel proclaimed it the first municipal wireless system. Hey, who are we to argue. But being the first isn’t what really sets the WAGZone apart.
First of all, it is free to the user . And that is about the only price that all users are willing to pay. But it costs to build and run the WAGZone. The $80K to buy the equipment came from a research grant from the Georgia Research Alliance. The minimal $250 monthly technical maintenance is picked up by the NMI. The backhaul (the connection to the internet) worth about $500 month is provided by a progressive local internet service provider, NEGIA (http://www.negia.net) as a community service. And the Athens Clarke County Unified Government provides the government ladder trucks and personnel to keep the 6 devices mounted throughout downtown operational. So it costs a lot to make the WAGZone free.
Second, the WAGZone loses money. Now here comes the math. If something costs you and you are giving it away, that’s right, it loses money. We built the WAGZone as an experiment. We wanted to test ideas about mobile content. At the time, there was no place to do that so we built our own research test-bed. We have had some great results, including a patent on our system. Providing community connectivity was just a fringe benefit that came along with the package.
Third, the WAGZone isn’t a business. For those of you economically inclined, I didn’t have to say that, did I? Sure, businesses are involved. NEGIA is a crucial partner – the WAGZone wouldn’t work without them. But the visibility NEGIA gets from being the bandwidth sponsor isn’t really enough to justify their expense. If they didn’t care about Athens it wouldn’t be worth their time.
Fourth, the WAGZone isn’t government. Yes, the government helps. But we aren’t spending tax dollars to keep the WAGZone running. I live in this community. I believe in spending tax dollars for parks, public transportation, and streetlights. Proven amenities that make Athens a better place. As much as I love the WAGZone, I believe Athens-Clarke County Unified Government should spend its precious money on other things right now.
And, finally, the WAGZone isn’t forever. Experiments end. Technology changes. 3G (third generation) systems are coming that offer the transmission speeds that are truly competitive with WiFi. Verizon’s EV-DO will soon offer download speeds of up to 4Mbps. AT&T is rolling out HSDPA/UMTS to more and more markets with comparable speeds. OK, OK acronym overload. But the bottom line is that other commercial providers are offering robust high-speed options. Of course the bad news is, you have to pay.
So the WAGZone survives because it is artificial. It is a fragile thing that can only exist in a community like Athens with a reputation for exploration and a system (a large university) that can support experimentation. Hey, college towns are known for propping up things that can’t survive anywhere else – innocence, optimism, idealism, hope. The WAGZone can make it in this Classic City Petri dish, but life outside the lab is harsh.
The struggling municipal wireless initiatives are a strange amalgam. Systems that want to be free (at least partially) yet make a profit using government resources. They are mashups that only Frankenstein could love – and you know how that affair ended.
So we have lived the WAGZone now for over four years and here is the big lesson. The future of municipal wireless belongs to the businesses who know how to build truly sustainable systems and are willing to take the speculative risk involved in shifting technology. Government and community groups have an important role to play in helping those businesses find ways to serve the community while making a profit – and holding them accountable when they don’t. Building systems to compete with companies (who pay taxes, remember) isn’t a way to deliver options to consumers. It is just a good way to waste money.
What is the WAGZone? The Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGZone) is our WiFi system in Athens, Georgia covering most of the downtown business district. In 2003 when the NMI built the WAGZone, Intel proclaimed it the first municipal wireless system. Hey, who are we to argue. But being the first isn’t what really sets the WAGZone apart.
First of all, it is free to the user . And that is about the only price that all users are willing to pay. But it costs to build and run the WAGZone. The $80K to buy the equipment came from a research grant from the Georgia Research Alliance. The minimal $250 monthly technical maintenance is picked up by the NMI. The backhaul (the connection to the internet) worth about $500 month is provided by a progressive local internet service provider, NEGIA (http://www.negia.net) as a community service. And the Athens Clarke County Unified Government provides the government ladder trucks and personnel to keep the 6 devices mounted throughout downtown operational. So it costs a lot to make the WAGZone free.
Second, the WAGZone loses money. Now here comes the math. If something costs you and you are giving it away, that’s right, it loses money. We built the WAGZone as an experiment. We wanted to test ideas about mobile content. At the time, there was no place to do that so we built our own research test-bed. We have had some great results, including a patent on our system. Providing community connectivity was just a fringe benefit that came along with the package.
Third, the WAGZone isn’t a business. For those of you economically inclined, I didn’t have to say that, did I? Sure, businesses are involved. NEGIA is a crucial partner – the WAGZone wouldn’t work without them. But the visibility NEGIA gets from being the bandwidth sponsor isn’t really enough to justify their expense. If they didn’t care about Athens it wouldn’t be worth their time.
Fourth, the WAGZone isn’t government. Yes, the government helps. But we aren’t spending tax dollars to keep the WAGZone running. I live in this community. I believe in spending tax dollars for parks, public transportation, and streetlights. Proven amenities that make Athens a better place. As much as I love the WAGZone, I believe Athens-Clarke County Unified Government should spend its precious money on other things right now.
And, finally, the WAGZone isn’t forever. Experiments end. Technology changes. 3G (third generation) systems are coming that offer the transmission speeds that are truly competitive with WiFi. Verizon’s EV-DO will soon offer download speeds of up to 4Mbps. AT&T is rolling out HSDPA/UMTS to more and more markets with comparable speeds. OK, OK acronym overload. But the bottom line is that other commercial providers are offering robust high-speed options. Of course the bad news is, you have to pay.
So the WAGZone survives because it is artificial. It is a fragile thing that can only exist in a community like Athens with a reputation for exploration and a system (a large university) that can support experimentation. Hey, college towns are known for propping up things that can’t survive anywhere else – innocence, optimism, idealism, hope. The WAGZone can make it in this Classic City Petri dish, but life outside the lab is harsh.
The struggling municipal wireless initiatives are a strange amalgam. Systems that want to be free (at least partially) yet make a profit using government resources. They are mashups that only Frankenstein could love – and you know how that affair ended.
So we have lived the WAGZone now for over four years and here is the big lesson. The future of municipal wireless belongs to the businesses who know how to build truly sustainable systems and are willing to take the speculative risk involved in shifting technology. Government and community groups have an important role to play in helping those businesses find ways to serve the community while making a profit – and holding them accountable when they don’t. Building systems to compete with companies (who pay taxes, remember) isn’t a way to deliver options to consumers. It is just a good way to waste money.
posted by Grady College /University of Georgia at
7:52 AM
1 Comments:
The question is how committed will NEGIA be going forward now that it is no longer locally owned?
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