For the past several years, municipalities across the country have talked about and even begun implementing free WiFi offering. Many critics of these plans have claimed that cities have no business offering free high-speed wireless access as it competes with local telephone companies, cable providers of broadband, cellular companies and even local small business owners that use free wireless access to attract customers.

Proponents of free municipal provided WiFi say that it will bring internet access to lower-income households, improve tourism and benefit businesses. There are benefits, but many of these do not pass even the most basic cost-benefit analysis.

Even with free internet access, the cost for a computer and wireless card are still a large barrier for many low-income households, but the “digital divide� is one that does need continued attention. A better program would include a program for providing refurbished computers, training and fixed line broadband at no cost.

General businesses use a tremendous amount of bandwidth and currently pay large fees for these services. If a municipality offers free access WiFi, business will begin to transition to the free service. With the increased load on the municipal network and decreased service provider revenue from the businesses, the service fees the municipality pays will increase drastically. As these costs increase, the general tax base will need to cover these services, which fundamentally spreads the costs among all, even those people and businesses that are not using the internet.

Some municipalities have proposed offering WiFi for a cost and simply providing free services for low-income households, but this still leaves the cost of the initial computer hardware as a barrier to internet access and moves the city into the position of a utility/service provider.

There is a noticeable benefit to tourism, especially business travel, when advertised, but most municipalities have only proposed these all encompassing wireless offerings.

Enter a simple but novel approach from Huntsville, Alabama. Many do not think of Alabama as a technology front mover, but Huntsville is home to 1) one of the country’s two U.S. Space Camps 2) Intergraph Corporation, 3) sizeable offices for Boeing, Northrop Grumman, LG Electronics and Lockheed Martin 4) Redstone Arsenal which houses several military and NASA installations, plus external associate firms 5) many other large technical installations and smaller R&D houses.

Huntsville’s approach to WiFi is to partner with Traveller Internet Solutions to offer a limited free WiFi solution to visitors of the Big Spring International Park, which covers the Von Braun Convention Center (170,000+ square foot center) and much of downtown.

Technicians are still fine tuning the service and will fully activate the links shortly. When completed, each user will be given three free house of service per month, with the ability to pay for extended service.

This three hour free offering will serve the need of most business and personal travelers and are projected to be a great new benefit for the convention center. In exchange for the right to offer and charge for extended services, Traveller provides the WiFi network, under municipal supervision, at no cost to the city. This arrangement also allows businesses and even the convention center the ability to work with Traveller to provide additional complimentary hours.

Other municipalities would do well to copy this arrangement from Huntsville. It provides wireless data access to visitors and residents for basic needs at little cost to tax payers, may even become a revenue stream from commissions on extended plans sold by the service provider and leaves open the possibility of helping low-income households access the internet.

Kurt Uhlir, a Chicago technologist and regular commentator on video games by day, oversees products and strategy for Extremely Sharp Swords, Knives & Martial Arts. Visit ES at http://www.extremely-sharp.com

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