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Blogs -
The Entrepreneur
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Written by Joshua Montgomery
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:44 |
 Lawrence, KS - As any good mortician knows, it is always a good idea to check the temperature of a corpse before burying it. The same is true for technology.
Today the airwaves are full of stories about the demise of Municipal WiFi. Earthlink’s failure to complete its Philadelphia project is being haled as the death knell of the technology – a victory for the naysayers and luddites.
What reporters are not writing about is the other side of this story, the hundreds of communities in which networks are living up to their potential. Here in Lawrence, Kansas home of the 100,000 raving Jayhawk fans, the municipal WiFi network is not only healthy - it’s thriving.
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Though the project keeps a low profile, the Lawrence Freenet Project is one of the earliest municipal networks to in the midwest. The network went online in August of 2005 and has been growing ever since. The Project is made up of three entities:
- Lawrence Freenet, Inc a 501c(4) non-profit
- Community Wireless Communications Co. (CWC) a for-profit service provider
- The City of Lawrence which saw the benefits in universal broadband
What is the difference between the Lawrence Freenet Project and the Philadelphia WiFi story?
- The City granted access to the right of way at no charge.
- Lawrence Freenet and CWC work closely together to ensure success.
- Lawrence Freenet is meeting and exceeding its social service goals.
- CWC is the only municipal WiFi service provider in the country that is in the black.
First off the City of Lawrence was forward thinking enough to grant access to the right of way in exchange for the provision of low income services. This means that the non-profit doesn’t have to pay monthly rental fees to use the city’s right of way. This allows the non-profit to focus on its social service goals. It also promotes economic development. Unlike other communities where networks are in financial trouble, the Lawrence Freenet Project recently received the foundation award for job creation.
One thing that stands out about the Philadelphia project is that the City, Wireless Philadelphia and Earthlink don’t seem to be getting along. The Lawrence Freenet Project has avoided this by keeping the relationship between the non-profit and for-profit very close. This makes it possible for the two organizations to work together to ensure that all of the projects goals are met.
Unlike other communities where social service takes a back seat to technology, finance and other priorities, the Lawrence Freenet Project has been serving low income members since it signed up its first members back in 2005. This spirit of giving has made it easier to convince potential members that they should switch from the confining wires of cable and DSL and upgrade to WiFi.
Last, but certainly not least, Lawrence’s service provider is operating in the black. Community Wireless Communications Co. is the only municipal WiFi provider in the country that is turning a profit. How? Innovating on the technology side while keeping expenses low. It speaks volumes that CWC’s cost for building out the Lawrence network was $1,400/Member while Earthlink’s was $3,400.
Don’t let the results fool you, it hasn’t been an easy row to hoe. The local cable provider owns the local newspaper which means what little coverage the project gets is overwhelmingly negative. The project’s relationship with the City is not as close as it could be and though CWC has been relatively successful in its fund raising effort, the company only received half of the money it set out to raise.
Fund raising will continue to be an obstacle as long as the media focuses on high profile failures like Earthlink and forgets to mention success stories like CWC. With continued investor confidence, companies like CWC will grow and will go on to use new technologies like 802.11n, WiMAX and whatever-comes-next. Sooner or later someone will roll up these small, profitable, service providers into a nation wide brand, creating a new telecommunications behemoth to compete on the global stage.
Remember, it wasn’t the gigantic dinosaur IBM that jumpstarted the computer revolution, small startups like Apple and Microsoft were the catalysts. These companies were made up of guys working in their garages because they loved the technology.
It wasn’t old technology companies like AT&T that revolutionized telecommunications, local cellular phone startups were the catalyst.
It won’t be legacy data providers like Earthlink or Sprint/Nextel/Clearwire that will revolutionize mobile connectivity; it will be wily startups like Community Wireless, Metro-Fi and Meraki Networks.
Before the press runs out declaring the extinction of the WiFi dinosaur, they should take a look around. There are wily coyotes everywhere.
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