City determined to re-animate wi-fi corpse

If it were a patient we'd already know the time and cause of death. But this is muni wi-fi, a bad idea that sticks around like a hair in a biscuit.

(from Alexis Grant of the Chron)

The city of Houston's wireless network deal with EarthLink is not officially in the gutter, but city officials already are making plans to take over at least one of the components of the project.

They are planning to use part of the $5 million penalty fee that EarthLink paid in September to finance a "digital inclusion" program intended to help students and the elderly in low-income neighborhoods access the Internet.

"One of the goals of the WiFi plan was to bridge the digital divide, and because of the city's good contract, we have substantial money to invest in that," Mayor Bill White said Tuesday.

EarthLink paid the $5 million penalty for missing a deadline to begin building the project earlier this year.

Under plans being drawn up by the city, $3.5 million of that penalty fee would go toward creating free, WiFi hotspots in 10 neighborhoods and helping residents there acquire equipment and training to use the Internet, said Richard Lewis, the city's director of information technology.

Those neighborhoods have not been chosen, he said, but the first should see access nodes by March. He said he hoped corporations will come forward with money or equipment to supplement city funds.

The remaining $1.5 million will go toward other city wireless projects, including public safety, Lewis said.

It's time to scrap this plan and redistribute the funds toward either police staffing or infrastructure improvement (including flood control). As Kuff would say, those goal posts are changing position again. Wi-fi has gone from a gee-whiz way for the City to "upgrade" internal communication with a focus on public safety and disaster response that contains a side benefit of providing internet access to most to a patchwork hodge-podge of programs that are set to "bridge the digital divide" by giving nodes to 10 neighborhoods, subsidizing computers and training, and accomplishing nothing except to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.


The fact that those computers are likely to be either immersed in the next big rain event due to sub-standard drainage or lifted due to theft is one of those "trivial matters" that politicians tell us not to think about.


OTHER EYES:

Off the Kuff: Houston Wi-fi, the next stage.

BlogHouston: Mayor White undeterred in bridge-building efforts.