Re: Googlie Wifi - expanded

Mike, all,
 
 I just did some quick math and came up with some interesting numbers:

 Google Muni Wireless, Mountain View, CA, 12 square miles, 15,000
users/month, # of Mesh Radios: 400+, my estimate of hardware and
installation costs $2,500,000 (this does NOT include any back office,
monthly recurring, planning and design or other costs). This comes out to a
current cost per subscriber of $166.67, just for the initial install and not
including ongoing recurring and maintenance costs.

 MetroFi Unwire Portland, OR, 130 square miles, # of unique subscribers as
of August; 16,000, unknown # of paid subscribers, # of Mesh radios: over
500+ so far, my estimate of hardware and installation costs to date,
$3,000,000 minimum (not including same costs as above). This comes out to
$187.50 per subscriber, using the same parameters as above. 

 There are many unknowns here as well as variables to take into account. The
paid subscribers would make a big difference in Portland but the size of the
city and the poor RF (radio frequency) characteristics make Portland a much
more difficult project. If muni wireless is done on a commercial basis,
having county/city/agency and businesses paying for services via the
infrastructure helps to offset the reduced cost or free coverage to
consumers. Without the shared expense and usage, I don't see these projects
being here for the long term.

 Having PTP assist the city of Portland in providing free WiFi coverage in
selected areas of Portland, as was done in the Mississippi project, would
and should be an option worth discussing. It would also require a larger
commitment on the part of PTP and volunteers.

 My $.02 worth	

Rick Lindahl
Invictus Networks, LLC
503-635-2562, f 503-635-9207
www.invictusnetworks.com

-----Original Message-----
From: general-bounces-9Og1/[email protected]
[mailto:general-bounces-9Og1/[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael
Weinberg
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 8:46 AM
To: PTP-General
Subject: Re: [ptp-general] Googlie Wifi

I think Google's Mountain View Wifi is the muni-wireless exception  
that proves the rule. It appears to have good coverage over most of  
the city. It's free and open to the public. Sam Churchill doesn't  
"keep hearing what a piece of shit" it is. [1]

So what does this prove? It proves that if you want to create these  
panacea, city-wide, free to you and me networks, something needs to  
be subsidized. Google isn't trying to turn a profit on Mountain View,  
even though they surely have some business case for it, and so  
they're able to build it to work, rather than building it to stay  
within an impossibly low budget.

This is where Community Wireless has an advantage: We're not a  
business, and we don't have investors to satisfy. We're building  
networks because we care about them, and we do it right because  
that's the only way they should be done.

Michael

[1] http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3342/9469/

On Aug 29, 2007, at 11:51 PM, Aaron Baer wrote:

> Happy Anniversary.. or something..
>
> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/first-year-of-google-wifi.html
>
> ......and the network now handles over 300 gigabytes of data each  
> day, sent
> to over 100 distinct types of WiFi devices. Virtually the entire  
> city....
>
> Coolaid,
> A-
>
> -- 
> ----
> Aaron Baer
> [email protected]
> http://aaron.slyness.org/
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