Wi-Fi loses favor in some big cities as the business case implodes.

The loud bang heard around the country this summer was the sound of the overhyped municipal Wi-Fi market crashing to earth. Lost in that cacophony, however, is the potential for Wi-Fi and its bigger, stronger cousin WiMAX to deliver broadband into underserved areas.

What junked the plans of big cities such as Chicago and San Francisco, as well as many Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, was the expectation that broadband wireless access would be free or advertising-supported, and generally available throughout downtown areas, including wide open spaces and municipal buildings. By contrast, other cities — including Corpus Christi, Texas; Riverside, Calif.; and Minneapolis — have proceeded with more rational broadband wireless buildouts based on an anchor tenancy by a municipality needing public safety and other government applications. In each of those cases, the city partnered with a service provider — AT&T, EarthLink and US Internet, respectively — to handle the broadband service delivery.

In rural areas, municipalities and rural operators still have options when it comes to wireless, say those in the field, but they need to make careful plans and rational choices.

“Muni Wi-Fi doesn't work where they see this as digital inclusion or economic development or an affordable broadband play first and foremost,” said Karl Edwards, president of Excelsio Communications and a consultant in the wireless market. “Some cities are not thinking, ‘I want to replace leased lines or do automated meter reading or provide mobile connectivity for public works, police, fire.’ When they commit to that and go out for grant money to fund those kinds of projects, it works.”

For rural areas where the electric utility is municipally owned, automated meter reading represents a major savings that can justify the deployment of infrastructure, Edwards said. Public safety applications have, to date, been the most popular municipal application for deployment of Motorola's wireless mesh technology with 65% of the deployments including a public safety application, said Chip Yager, director of operations for Motorola's Mesh Network Product Group.

“They can alleviate traffic congestion, manage parking facilities better, monitor high crime areas and lower the crime rate by using public surveillance,” Yager said. “They can make the police force respond better and more efficiently and lower the number of police needed. That is the conversation that is now taking place.”

Furthermore, funding for public safety applications through Department of Homeland Security grants also may be easier to receive, Edwards said.

Both municipalities and service providers need to consider their options, however, because there are technology choices to be made. Wi-Fi networks have a great advantage today in that laptop computers come equipped with Wi-Fi, in either its 802.11b or 802.11g flavors. The radio equipment itself is relatively inexpensive and operates in unlicensed spectrum.

The downside to Wi-Fi is its propagation limitations; it requires many more access points to be deployed for reliable coverage, and for in-building use, it is likely to require devices to boost the laptop's signal. That's because laptops with 802.11 functionality tend to operate at 30 to 50 milliwatts of power, which may not be enough to connect to an outdoor Wi-Fi antenna. Several devices now on the market provide the necessary power boost, including the Ruckus devices being used in Minneapolis.

WiMAX isn't as widely deployed, but it doesn't require as much infrastructure because it covers a much larger area with more powerful radios. It can operate as fixed wireless (WiMAX D) in unlicensed spectrum or as mobile service (WiMAX E) in licensed spectrum. WiMAX E gear is expected to hit the market next year as both Clearwire and Sprint deploy their WiMAX networks across the country.

“The biggest question is, do you have licensed spectrum?” said Angela Singhal, director of municipal wireless solutions for Nortel Networks. “If you don't, WiMAX E is off the table.”

It is possible to use WiMAX D as a backhaul technology for Wi-Fi access networks, combining the strength of the two technologies and operating in unlicensed spectrum, she added. Trinity Rail is doing that now in Dallas, where a WiMAX D backhaul network supports a Wi-Fi mesh network along high-speed train tracks.

Singhal also cited a deployment in Alberta, where “users are spread out and you are going very long distances. WiMAX D makes a lot more sense in that case. You can put a [customer premises equipment] device in-home, and consumers hook up their router to that.”

There is even the possibility to obtain access from spectrum owners, such as educational entities. “Universities have access to spectrum, and they are pairing up with regional operators,” Singhal said. “The university gives the operator access to the spectrum and in return gets discounted access or revenue sharing, and then local governments, hotels and hospitals can all participate.”

In the state of South Carolina, a Wireless Technology and Communications Commission is exploring options for how to use the spectrum owned by one statewide entity, now known as ETV, to bring broadband access to rural areas and smaller towns where it isn't available today. South Carolina is unusual in that one statewide organization holds the spectrum, which in most states has been divided among different universities, colleges and community college districts.

The commission's task is to explore the different technology options and determine whether there is a business case to be made, said state Sen. James Ritchie (R-Greenville), who sponsored the legislation that created the commission. The hope is for the commission to work with service providers, he added, and not to compete with them.

Pairing up with local municipalities or utilities helps to make a more convincing business case for broadband wireless because it gives access to the rights of way needed by providers and makes funding easier. In southeastern Oklahoma, Choctaw Electric Cooperative, Pine Cellular and Pine Telephone will build a broadband infrastructure based on Nortel's 4G WiMAX technology by using a Community Connect Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Choctaw Electric Cooperative and Pine serve the same territory and will be sharing parts of the WiMAX infrastructure to reduce costs. The network will be built on Choctaw's infrastructure, mounting WiMAX antennas on its towers, and will provide both extensions of Pine Telephone's DSL service and expansion of Pine Cellular's current coverage area with the addition of mobile broadband. Choctaw's largely mobile work force, including pole crews and truck teams, will use the mobile broadband service to improve internal communications.

WiMAX represents “a phenomenal opportunity” for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities because they actually have a much better propagation environment than major metros, said Jim Freeze, senior vice president of marketing and alliances for BelAir Networks. “It's easier to deploy in areas that don't have a ton of tall buildings,” he said. “In those places, there is less competition for broadband, but just as much demand.”