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Orlando Killing Free WiFi Plan

Wednesday, Jun. 22 2005 | Author: jeremy

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The city of Orlando in Florida has pulled the plug on the city’s free Wi-Fi service. Although the city has a population of over 1.8m, only around 27 people a day were using the service, which was costing the district $1,800 a month.

This doesn’t seem so suprising. Cities and municipalities have no business in offering network services to the public, much less for free. I think many of the cities that are planning on offering some sort of public WiFi will soon find that the cost of maintaining a network of that size far outweighs any gains the city may find in the form of PR.

A much better solution is to team up with a local company that can provide the connection and maintain the network.

On a side note, if you are ever in Birmingham (Alabama, not England) and in need of WiFi, be sure to check out the local list at www.bhamwifi.com. It has over 150 locations on it and is growing everyday.

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6 Responses for "Orlando Killing Free WiFi Plan"

Chad

June 22nd, 2005 at 2:20 pm
1

I love Austin’s free wireless. My favorite spot is Republic Square Park. The Alamo Drafthouse (movie theater that serves awesome food and beer) does a free Movies in the Park night there during the summer. Nothing like kicking back on a blanket with the family watching Goonies and surfing for free.

I don’t mind paying the extra property taxes these services require, at least I have some tangible ROI if you will.
skorpi0wn

June 22nd, 2005 at 3:00 pm
2

And I was one of those 27.
Bob Owen

June 22nd, 2005 at 11:28 pm
3

From posting: “Cities and municipalities have no business in offering network services to the public, much less for free.”

Hmmm. Why should offering network services for free be any more of a problem than the dozens of other services a city provides for free? Let’s see, roads, fire services, police, environmental, education, libraries.

It seem seems to me that cities have a perfect right to offer free, actually tax based, services to it’s residents. I may be missing something, but why should network services be the exception?
axlr8or

June 23rd, 2005 at 5:16 am
4

Yes, I would have to agree, some form of public Internet access should be the norm. The technology is simple, it should have been free a long time ago.

I am aware of the ‘Big Brother’ approach you may be coming with. But with some of the encryption techniques of today, even big brother can’t crack your code.

I think that Internet access should be completely out of the hands of the government or business. My dream is of people cooperating and coordinating to produce landscapes of free cellular and computer communication. Community involvment would support maintenance and repair.
cliche

June 27th, 2005 at 1:18 am
5

“Hmmm. Why should offering network services for free be any more of a problem than the dozens of other services a city provides for free? Let’s see, roads, fire services, police, environmental, education, libraries.”

The public service you mention above are essential, and anyone can take advantage of them. Wifi, at least for now, is a luxury catering to the minority of laptop owners. Even among that minority, the majority don’t see the reason to visit the park just to surf the web. If you were living in Orlando, would you like your tax money to go to a project that 27 people find halfway useful?
Sonya

October 26th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
6

I did live in Orlando and I would have loved having that service. Traffic in Orlando was horrendous and I often would drive down to Lake Eola or another park not far from DT until traffic died down.

Granted it was 1994 and the web portion of the internet was just getting started but it would have been a great way to pass time and discover the web. I love having access to web anywhere. I’m more productive because I don’t have to wait until I get home to accomplish something. It’s still an amazing feeling having access to information anytime, anywhere I want.