City-wide wireless Internet? Maybe not quite yet

Widespread wireless internet connection in many urban areas might be too much to hope for,… Widespread wireless internet connection in many urban areas might be too much to hope for, according to an article recently published in The New York Times.

As economic interests overtake the generous initial reasons for promising low-cost access, many previously celebrated plans to provide Internet to the masses are beginning to fade.

The Internet is supposed to be free to everyone, right? At least, that’s the glorified picture many people have of the World Wide Web.

After all, it’s effectively owned by no one, policed by no one and provides completely free access to information – that is, once someone connects. The truth of the matter is that, unfortunately, Internet service can be pretty expensive to get.

High-speed broadband can run you approximately $42.95 a month, and that’s for basic Comcast service. Dial-up services are more reasonable, but only if you can bear to relegate your computer to a life of tediously slow image loading.

There’s a significant problem, therefore, in connecting to the Internet if you live in a low-income area in cities like Philadelphia, New York or San Francisco. You simply can’t afford Internet access in a world that’s increasingly choosing Internet publication over paper publication.

Many were relieved to hear that companies wished to develop the Internet infrastructure of various areas in the United States, thus providing either outright free, or at least highly inexpensive, connections for local residents.

The idea, of course, is not new. Around the year 2000, Unisys deemed community-wide Internet access profitable enough to spend millions of dollars in West Chester, Pennsylvania – my hometown – to build a community portal.

They stopped short of providing Internet access to West Chester residents at home, but they did plan the construction of a hip-sounding “Internet cafe.”

Today, we would call this a “wired hotspot,” and it was heralded as a way of providing the Internet – and thus advertising exposure – to West Chester residents who would otherwise not be able to gain access.

Excitement over the possibilities of having universal Internet access peaked around approximately 2000, when the promise of the Internet seemed to throw conventional wisdom about the economy and profit out the window.

Internet entrepreneurs thought that providing completely free Internet to the city would be viable with technology that could be purchased inexpensively, installed with minimal fuss and could immediately begin raising interest and thus, through some string of magical transformations of the Internet, turn into profit. This seemed to be working as, in the case of Philadelphia, the company Earthlink received copious amounts of positive feedback.

Many families were ecstatic about Earthlink’s plan, which was to erect various free hot-spots throughout the city, as well as provide inexpensive home-based access for low-income neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, the Internet is not as free as it seems, and the initial estimates of just throwing up some electronics, at which point a “poof” would sound and the Internet would appear, have turned out to be somewhat unrealistic.

Companies like Earthlink are teetering on the edge of shutting down the project, as cities are scrambling to remind providers that they signed a contract.

As for Unisys, the project fizzled rather quickly. And that brand-new, incredibly hip cyber cafe? I think it’s a book store