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Muni Wi-Fi: "The End of the Beginning"

Dear Tropos Friend,

After EarthLink's most recent announcements I felt the title above, a reference to the famous Winston Churchill quote, was very appropriate as I share my perspective about the metro Wi-Fi market today. I have been asked many times in the past few weeks why EarthLink decided to curtail investment in muni Wi-Fi, and whether this means the end of the muni Wi-Fi industry.

This question is my chance to reflect a bit on the last three years in our industry, and I would like to make the following points in my answer:

  • Strategy changes at EarthLink are being driven by overall corporate business model considerations with the arrival of a new CEO. EarthLink metro Wi-Fi networks are actually seeing significant usage and are providing good value to users and the local communities. Subscriber counts and "occasional use" customers on the five operating EarthLink systems are significant and growing nicely. Wireless Philadelphia is now handing our laptops to low-income families and providing low-cost broadband connectivity. EarthLink is committed to capitalizing on these fundamentals and making their business model work for these cities.
  • Tropos continues to add many new municipal and service provider customers, and our installed networks continue to attract new subscribers and exciting applications. We are serving users, saving lives, crossing the digital divide, assisting with education and much more. British Telecom is now out marketing their Wireless City networks in the UK. Frontier Communications is in the process of rolling out a significant metro Wi-Fi footprint to expand their revenue streams and provide new services to subscribers. Our 600+ square mile network in Oklahoma City is now "Wi-Fi primary" with Sprint EV-DO as backup. New metro Wi-Fi networks are being built in Amory, MS; Baton Rouge, LA; Lafayette, LA; Richgrove, CA; Savannah, GA; and Derry, Ireland to name a few.
  • Beyond EarthLink, muni Wi-Fi networks are seeing significant and growing usage. Google recently shared user counts for their network in Mountain View and the numbers are impressive indeed.

As with any new industry and new technology, we have learned some things together in the last few years that will ensure the continued growth and success of the muni Wi-Fi market. A few of the key learnings are:

  • Our networks provide the best value when delivering high-value mobile consumer applications for an increasingly digital lifestyle and enterprise mobile applications such as for municipal workers and public safety that are run over city- and service provider-owned networks. Mounting assets and available backhaul significantly increase the success rate of projects. For service providers, having the city or another enterprise anchor tenant is very valuable.
  • Both rich routing, operating and management software and advanced radio technology are essential to delivering reliable mobile Internet connectivity, coverage and capacity. Sufficient cell density is critical too, which demands low cost and easy installation and maintenance-again software is critical here. These learnings will benefit all mobile Internet technologies, whether Wi-Fi, WiMAX or cellular.

New mobile Internet devices like the iPhone, and applications like Tucson's ERLink, will no doubt drive increased demand for the mobile Internet. It is these devices and applications that will drive the next phase of growth in metro Wi-Fi, and you will no doubt be hearing a lot more about them in future newsletters.

So, to paraphrase Sir Winston, it is not the beginning of the end for our industry, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Thank you all for continuing to help us build this great market and prove out the many valuable applications for the mobile Internet.

Best Regards,

Ron Sege
President and CEO
Tropos Networks

Traffic on Google's Metro Wi-Fi Network in Mountain View Handles >300 Gigabytes of Traffic Daily!

Philly's Wild for Wi-Fi!

Frontier Building Business on Wi-Fi

Tropos and Gilmore Foundation Help to Bridge the Digital Divide in Amory, MS

Boston's Newbury Street Gets Boost in Reliability and Performance With Tropos MetroMesh Routers

Guest Commentary

Tropos Public Safety Solutions

Featured Tropos Solution Partners

iPhone Works Better on Wi-Fi Than on the EDGE Network

Tropos Customer Success Stories

Upcoming Events

View Previous Issues


Traffic on Google's Metro Wi-Fi Network in Mountain View Handles >300 Gigabytes of Traffic Daily!

As Google's Tropos MetroMesh-based network in Mountain View celebrates its first anniversary, it shows steadily increasing usage and the ability to adapt as usage increases. Google reports in a recent blog posting that the community network serves 15,000 unique users per month and handles over 300 gigabytes of data daily.

Philly's Wild for Wi-Fi!

Now that Philadelphia's 135-square mile network is over 80% completed, the city is excited about the potential benefits: increased economic development, easy access for tourists and visitors, efficiency improvements for mobile municipal workers, digital divide, and competitively priced alternative service for residential users. Read more...

Wireless Philadelphia, a non-profit organization, is using the network to assist in delivering on their vision of helping economically disadvantaged citizens, businesses, and schools get connected to the Internet. Read more...

Can you really just about anywhere around Philly and attach to the city's Wi-Fi network? Check out the video produced by Network World and see for yourself!

Frontier Building Business on Wi-Fi

Frontier has begun offering its public mobile Wi-Fi service in Cookeville, Tennessee; Carlinville, Illinois; Elko, Nevada. The wireless data offering is an extension of the company's existing offering which includes voice, video and high-speed Internet products and services. In addition, Wilkes-Barre, PA is being deployed and will be used not only for public access but for public safety applications as well.

Tropos and Gilmore Foundation Help to Bridge the Digital Divide in Amory, MS

The Gilmore Foundation, a non-profit organization benefiting all of northeast Mississippi, has completed its installation of a Wi-Fi network in Amory, MS providing access to city's residents, businesses and municipal workers. The multi-application network is available free of charge to all users, improving municipal worker efficiency as well as improving quality of life for all residents. In addition to residential and commercial Internet access, the network was deployed to combat the city's troubled education system and rising poverty rate. Read more...

Boston's Newbury Street Gets Boost in Reliability and Performance With Tropos MetroMesh Routers

The NewburyOpen.net network is a free community wireless network covering downtown Boston's Newbury Street area. Its used by visitors, residents and local businesses. Read more...

Guest Commentary



Mobile Technology Solutions for Today's Mobile Workforce

The concept of the mobile workforce has dramatically challenged the traditional methods in which employees analyze documents and interact with data. As more and more workers become equipped with mobile devices, organizations enjoy a wide range of benefits including enhanced data collection and accuracy, improved data quality and flow, and more accountability for work processes and task assignments. With these kinds of benefits, there is an increasing demand for government officials to embrace new mobile technologies.

In addition government agencies are being pressured to take on increasing levels of responsibilities and tasks without increasing headcount. As a result, government agencies are examining ways in which to become more efficient — mobile computing solutions can significantly contribute to this by improving the exchange of vital information with field personnel, employees, and citizens-and to automate critical business processes.

Read the full commentary here...

The views expressed in this Guest Commentary are those of its author and are not necessarily reflective of Tropos Networks. Tropos Networks, its partners and customers are not responsible for the third-party Guest Commentary content.

Tropos Public Safety Solutions

The 9000 family of 4.9 GHz-equipped MetroMesh routers for public safety are now shipping and include Tropos' unique Spectrum Application Based Routing Engine (SABRE) technology that provides dynamic policy-based multi-band routing within the mesh. Specifically, it reserves the 4.9GHz band for public safety use while optionally allowing the use of 2.4GHz spectrum for fault tolerance and capacity overflow.

Learn more about the Tropos 9532 Outdoor Public Safety MetroMesh Router and the 9422 Mobile Public Safety MetroMesh Router.

Featured Tropos Solution Partners

High-quality solutions (applications, infrastructure components, CPEs) and metro Wi-Fi networks go hand-in-hand in building networks that deliver high value for communities. Tropos selects key partners to invite into its MetroMesh Solution Partners program to assist customers in identifying the components it takes to build the network and services they want to deliver.

General Devices and Tropos partnered to create the first operational EMS telemedicine system in the country in Tucson, AZ. View the Tucson News 12 video about this deployment. General Devices is a leader in advanced Telemedicine and Communications products for Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Departments and Public Safety, providing solutions for voice, telemetry, patient care information and interoperability via radio, cellular, landline, and wireless mesh networks. Learn more about how General Devices solutions are saving lives.

BridgeWave Communications is the leading supplier of point-to-point, fixed Gigabit Ethernet outdoor wireless connectivity solutions. With more than 1,000 gigabit radios deployed worldwide, BridgeWave delivers the highest levels of product quality and reliability.

ShotSpotter is the world leader in gunshot location and detection systems for the public safety and military markets. The company has been delivering patented, state-of-the-art gunshot location and detection solutions for more than a decade, enabling countless arrests as well as saving lives. Learn more about how ShotSpotter is helping fight crime.

iPhone Works Better on Wi-Fi Than on the EDGE Network

Since the release of Apple's iPhone in late June, there has been much praise of the phone, matching most of its pre-release hype, and at the same time much criticism of AT&T's cellular EDGE network. Critics agree that EDGE is outdated and not capable with keeping up with the expectations of today's Internet and data-transfer demands.

Out of this attention naturally there arises one question. Is the iPhone experience better in cities equipped with outdoor Wi-Fi coverage such as the Earthlink network in Philadelphia and the Google network in Mountain View? Read the full article here...

Check out a side-by-side live comparison of the iPhone running on the AT&T EDGE network, and on the Google Wi-Fi network powered by Tropos in Mountain View. You won't believe the difference!

Tropos Customer Success Stories

While Tropos is deploying new networks every month, focusing on the success of existing networks is just as important as reporting on the new.

Virtual Eyes on Crime Help Protect the Community of
Savannah, GA

The Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department can respond faster and pinpoint problems as a result of its virtual surveillance network in the downtown riverfront area. The Tropos-based network is being used to monitor crowds during its famous Saint Patrick's Day Festival, as well as other public events held in the area year-round. Click here to read the full story.

Breakeven for Network in Marina del Rey, CA in under one year
Planet Halo, has outfitted Marina del Rey with outdoor Wi-Fi coverage and expects to break even on their investment within one year! For the first time, boat owners and visitors to the marina can access the Internet over the Tropos-based network. Click here to read the full story.

Upcoming Events

National Wireless Summit & Expo
Los Angeles, CA
September 10-11, 2007

2007 Tiburon User Group Conference
Orlando, FL
September 16-20, 2007

Public Technology Institute (PTI) – Wi-Fi Done Right Part 2
Corpus Christi, TX
September 19-21, 2007

MuniWireless
Santa Clara, CA
October 21-23

Click here to view the issue #10 from January 2006.

Click here to view the issue #11 from March 2006.

Click here to view the issue #12 from May 2006.

Click here to view the issue #13 from January 2007.

Click here to view the issue #14 from June 2007.

Tropos Networks, 555 Del Rey Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085