Municipal WI-FI

New Scientist (subscription required) writes about municipal WI-FI - the payback (free or cheap WI-FI access to small businesses, students, mobile employees) and the challenges ( few standards around mesh WI-FI networks, protests from telecom companies, perception issues – if they cannot run our schools well, why will they run a high-tech project well? Response to last one – many are partnering with private companies like EarthLink to provide the service).

Politics aside, the deployments are expected to explode. Today less than 1,500 square miles are serviced by municipal mesh networks. By 2010 over 120,000 square miles are expected to be blanketed from Taipei to Toronto. The wireless dial tone.

Update: Om provides update on Google/Earthlink in the San Francisco deal and elsewhere.

Further update: May be the telecom industry will not be so hostile to municipal WI-FI based on this change in stance