The Promise of Municipal Broadband

[Commentary] It is far too early to start the funeral arrangements for municipal broadband. Much of the media are confusing the collapse of one company -- or one model of broadband deployment -- with the failure of the entire idea of municipalities providing high-speed Internet services. Many projects -- especially in small towns and mid-sized cities -- are thriving. City-owned wireless systems are up and running, serving local residents and businesses or local police and emergency workers. Places like Sallisaw, Oklahoma, and Kutztown, Pennsylvania, are building their own fiber-optic networks that offer high-speed Internet and cable TV. In total, more than 400 cities and towns already have launched, or are developing, municipal broadband systems. Spending on municipal networks increased last year and is expected to keep rising. MuniWireless.com projects that annual spending on equipment and services will exceed $900 million by 2010. Municipal broadband is caught up in a classic "hype cycle" -- a term coined by the Gartner Research Group to chart technology trends. It works like this: First, new technology triggers a wave of excitement that builds to a "peak of inflated expectations." For municipal broadband this was 2005's heady days of "free Internet for everyone everywhere." After the peak, there's a rapid slide toward what Gartner calls "the trough of disillusionment" -- a.k.a. rock bottom or, in this case, the headline in the March 22 edition of The New York Times: "Hopes for Wireless Cities Are Fading."