Boom times predicted for municipal WLANs

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 26 July 2007 03:38

Your IT - Home IT

Municipal wireless spending in the US and UK will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 48 percent from $US900 million in 2007 to $US6.4 billion in 2012 according to a new report. 

Prepared by market analyst Datamonitor, the report says municipal wireless network deployments are positioned to explode in the UK and the US over the next five years as local governments and internet service providers recognize the economic and community benefits these networks offer.

These benefits are said to include include making free broadband wireless Internet access available to mobile professionals and citizens, on-the-spot police and fire department access to time sensitive information, lower communication costs for government agencies and improved reputations as 'cutting edge' cities.

"While some cities are looking to expand internet access to disadvantaged citizens, others want to provide government workers with connectivity to internal systems while in the field. Other cities are driven to attract new businesses to their communities," says the report's author, Datamonitor government technology analyst Kate McCurdy.

"A public-private partnership business model is attractive to both local governments and service providers because it allows each to focus on its core competencies – serving constituents and providing internet service," she added. "The most successful dynamics go one step further, however, and make the local government the 'anchor tenant' on the network."