Living in the Wi-Fi city

Progressive local authorities in Europe and the US are plunging into a new technology trend by rolling out free Wi-Fi across cities.

The theory is that making high-speed wireless access freely available makes city employees more efficient, and gives citizens easy access to government services. One of the most common justifications for such schemes is that they will help bridge the digital divide, fight social exclusivity and bolster the knowledge economy.

This noble aim is frequently espoused by local and national politicians, such as Tony Blair who once claimed that "We must make sure the whole of society can experience the benefits of the Internet". Many vendors of the equipment that makes wireless cities possible agree -- for example, Intel's Gordon Graylish, who recently told CNET.co.uk's sister site ZDNET UK that "It's very difficult to argue with social inclusion". Such sentiments sound praiseworthy, but is it really going to happen?

"It's not really happening right now because, left to their own devices, obviously operators are going to invest in infrastructure in only the most attractive parts of a city," says Niall Murphy, chief technology officer for network operator The Cloud. "It's complicated by the question of who has the money to invest in deploying these networks. If a city is in a position where they don't have the capital to undertake these investments themselves, an operator coming along and offering to undertake the investment for them is an attractive proposition."

This view is echoed by Dave Hughes, chief technology officer for BT Retail and one of the key players in the roll-out of BT and Motorola's Wireless Cities initiative.  The project will see parts of twelve UK cities go wireless by the end of March 2007. "For our purposes we're primarily interested in the commercial centres, where you get the most footfall," says Hughes candidly.

At the end of November, Hughes was one of the speakers at the Wireless Cities event -- held in Cannes and attended by industry and politicians. He told delegates at the conference that BT would happily continue to roll out access so long as it continues to get paid. "We're not a charity," he pointed out. "Sustainable quality in terms of access services is not free."

Hughes says it does not matter where the money comes from -- portal partners, the advertising industry and subsidies are all welcome.

This approach means that politicians who want to close the digital divide can't just give the commercial operators a free hand, otherwise the areas in greatest need of free Wi-Fi will miss out.

"If a city takes a passive view then that's what is going to happen," explains Murphy. "You see Internet cafes built in the richer part of the city -- that's why cities have got to take an active role."

If local authorities are serious about using municipal Wi-Fi networks to bridge the economic divide, says Murphy, they already have the right card up their sleeves. "They control the property rights," he says. "We do see some cities doing that, where they're saying: 'Right, the rules to play in our environment are as follows: we'll allow you to operate services in the rich areas, but we also want you therefore to be providing infrastructure in the poorer areas. In exchange for that, we are going to give you some exclusivity or some ability to have differentiation out of our infrastructure'."

"I don't think that runs in conflict with the notion of a neutral network at all. In fact I think it drives it because one has to figure out how one is going to drive maximum return out of that investment," Murphy adds.

On the face of it, one aspect of the digital divide -- easy access to public services, around 90 per cent of which are now available online -- could be solved by municipal Wi-Fi. In, for example, the City of Westminster's roll out, a tiered service will be offered to citizens.