This didn't take long. Remember the push for municipal wi-fi?
The innovation was hailed as "world changing" by public interest
advocates who trumpeted "WiFi for the people." Venture capitalists
dusted off their dot.com PowerPoint slides, showing the enormous
opportunity. "Ultimately, it all boils down to disruptive economics," touted
(PDF) one VC at a 2005 trade show. "The history of technology shows
that Cheap and Good Enough always wins over expensive and
purpose-built."...
New York City, New Orleans, Portland, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., Boston all moved to seed wireless clouds. Earthlink, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Earthlink and a gaggle of corporate boosters joined the crusade. By Summer 2006, a law review article pronounced the issue decided: "Citywide WiFi as a public service is no longer a bureaucratic pipe dream, but has the backing of America’s technological titans."
New York City, New Orleans, Portland, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., Boston all moved to seed wireless clouds. Earthlink, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Earthlink and a gaggle of corporate boosters joined the crusade. By Summer 2006, a law review article pronounced the issue decided: "Citywide WiFi as a public service is no longer a bureaucratic pipe dream, but has the backing of America’s technological titans."
And then...
Today the muni WiFi experiment is a shambles. The Philadelphia system
was abandoned by Earthlink in June, and sold for scrap. It never
performed as promised, and served fewer than 6,000 subscribers out of a
population of 1.6 million. It had promised to serve tens of thousands
of low-income households; the final tally of such users: 902. Those who
did sign-up for $6.95 per month found slow speeds and spotty coverage.
Alas, even tech-savvy early adopters eager to sip lattés while browsing
via broadband were disappointed...
Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago—all have gone bust. New York City, early on the bandwagon, got bogged down in politics, and now has simply given up. "We don't think municipal WiFi will succeed," offers a city official.
Fueled by the double helix of technological bravado and political hype, the war cry for muni WiFi was "market failure."
Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago—all have gone bust. New York City, early on the bandwagon, got bogged down in politics, and now has simply given up. "We don't think municipal WiFi will succeed," offers a city official.
Fueled by the double helix of technological bravado and political hype, the war cry for muni WiFi was "market failure."
Go read the whole thing.
Government making decisions about technology... Government deciding winners and losers in the economy... Gee, what could go wrong?
