San Jose Mercury News columnist Mike Langberg isn't convinced the consortium led by IBM and Cisco that plans to bring Wi-Fi to Silicon Valley will be able to deliver as promised. "There's a
long list of reasons why the project may never get off the ground, or pay for itself if it does get built," he says. The idea, to provide free public Wi-Fi throughout the Silicon Valley--the cradle of
Web civilization--is a good one. But the plans of Silicon Valley Metro Connect are ambitious, to say the least. Metro Connect wants to provide Wi-Fi across a region of 1,500 square miles with a
population of 2.4 million, spanning Santa Clara, San Mateo and parts of Santa Cruz and Alameda counties. Using hardware from Cisco and funds from IBM, Metro Connect says it will offer free service at
a clip of 1 megabit per second, which is almost as fast as DSL. It will cost IBM at least $75 million to make this happen. The problem is that there's no guarantee the cities in these counties will
spring for the project. California's cities are notoriously cash-strapped. Despite the state's left leanings, municipal governments may not be so keen on spending taxpayer dollars on the project.
Competition from cell phone companies could also be a factor. Cingular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are spending billions on upgrades. As yet, their networks are more expensive and slower than
Wi-Fi--but that will change, and they'll offer much better coverage. Also, independent providers are building nationwide WiMax networks. Stiff competition by stronger competitors capable of offering a
stronger product means that demand for municipal Wi-Fi overall is uncertain.
Read the whole story at San Jose Mercury News »
