[IP] Wireless Perception Versus Reality
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 12, 2005 9:24:48 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Wireless Perception Versus Reality
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Note: This item comes to me from friend Esme Vos of
MuniWireless.com DLH]
May 10, 2005
Wireless Perception Versus Reality
By David Haskin
Mobile Pipeline
<http://www.mobilepipeline.com/163100577>
For all the talk about municipal Wi-Fi networks, will people use them
when they're available? For Mobile Pipeline readers, the answer is
overwhelmingly "no" -- for now.
The recently-completed Mobile Pipeline Voting Booth survey asked what
type of mobile connectivity you expect to use in the next year. About
27 percent of respondents said they expect to use 3G offered by
wireless carriers. Wi-Fi hotspots drew 19 percent, WiMAX drew 18
percent and only four percent of respondents said they expect to use
municipal Wi-Fi networks.
Current predictions aren't the test of which types of connectivity
will succeed. Rather, the survey was more about perception. For
instance, WiMAX did pretty well more because of perception than
reality -- the technology gets a ton of attention, but mobile WiMAX
is about two years away and the survey asked about usage one year
from now.
In retrospect, it's not surprising that the perception of municipal
Wi-Fi is low. For one thing, the perception of government's ability
to deliver services is low. Also, municipal Wi-Fi has been blasted by
incumbent telecoms, claiming it infringes on their turf. The negative
public relations undoubtedly has hurt perceptions of municipal Wi-Fi.
Perhaps most important, though, is the fact that Mobile Pipeline
readers tend to be computing professionals. This isn't a group
accustomed to acquiring services from government, particularly when
the precise nature and quality of those services is unknown and
surely will vary from city to city.
The primary goals of most municipal Wi-Fi services are to provide
access to less affluent users and to all users when no other fast
access is available. Many municipalities have also said they want to
use municipal systems to buff up their image as a place in which to
do business although the Voting Booth survey indicates that business
isn't interested so far.
Perhaps the most telling statistic from the survey is that the
largest numbers of respondents -- 29 percent -- expect to use two or
more types of services. That response makes the most sense to me
because none of the wireless access services will be truly
ubiquitous, although 3G will come closest in the next year.
Having said all this, it's still astounding to me that the incumbent
telecoms have spent so much energy, time and money fighting municipal
Wi-Fi systems. It's becoming clear, at least to me, that municipal
systems will fill in gaps more than be direct competition to the telcos.
The strong positive response to 3G re-confirms, to me, that 3G has
the potential to be the goose laying the golden eggs -- but only if
wireless operators lower prices sooner rather than later and better
understand how their customers expect to access data. If those things
don't happen in the next year as 3G networks become widely available,
perceptions surely will change rapidly.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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