WI-FI for all?

Sioux Falls must at least start talking about what it wants

By PATRICK LALLEY and NESTOR RAMOS

PUBLISHED in Sioux Falls Argus Leader: December 3, 2006

In comfortable cafes, fast food stops and hotels across Sioux Falls, people flip open laptops and smart phones to get the latest news, send a few e-mails or chat in a forum.

Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity, allows us to untether the cords of the traditional computer world and wander about. It's an addictive technology that makes us more productive at work and intertwined with our world.

Dozens of cities in the United States think an umbrella of connectivity is an economic-development tool and a way to open the Internet to people who otherwise cannot afford it.

In Sioux Falls, we are just on the edge of the exploration of Wi-Fi. There are those scattered hot spots, a growing system for municipal and emergency workers, and a few blocks of downtown where people can log on for a fee.

How far should we go? Is this is an area for city government to get involved in a kind of modern public-works mission? Or should it be strictly the domain of private enterprise to decide what is viable and what is not?

It is a public conversation we need to have. How can we best use this technology to serve our citizens and make our community as attractive as possible to both business and tech-savvy workers?

Mike Hall, the city's central services director, said a citywide network available to all, either free or for a fee, is not something that's being discussed around City Hall.

Nobody in the city has stepped forward to lead the discussion. "I wouldn't be comfortable saying that at this stage, because we've never even toyed with that idea. I don't want to discount anything, but that's not on the radar," Hall said

Nichole Gerlach of Sioux Falls uses a table near the middle of Michelle's Coffee House as an office Wednesday afternoon in downtown Sioux Falls.

Which is not to say the city isn't interested. The city already is building and using an institutional network - one that allows public-safety employees to access data at hot spots around the city and allows city employees network access at certain locations. All the city's libraries soon will be hot spots, and City Hall and the Overlook Cafe are already online.

"Mayor Munson has been a big supporter of Wi-Fi, and we've looked at other communities to see what we could glean," Hall said. "We've been talking to the SDNs and the Midcos (Midcontinent Communications), and of course, the major national players have touched base with us."

None of those meetings, though, have led to a real plan.

The model used in many cities attempting to build networks invests as little tax money as possible and instead paves the way for a private investor to try to turn a profit.

"We've got big-city needs and wants and desires, but we're not large enough to get their attention," Hall said.

A city-subsidized network, Munson said, simply is not going to happen right now.

"For the city to do it, the cost would be prohibitive," Munson said. "We've got other needs that we have to take care of. We can't justify that now."

Munson, though, said the benefits of widespread Wi-Fi are real. "The more people can access it, that really does help your community. I think (we) need to be a technically advanced community."

As nearly 300 cities nationwide work toward networks of varying size, the Wi-Fi chase has become a point of pride.

Chuck Siemonsma knows a thing or two about building a Wi-Fi network.

He and Lee McKennan, both former LodgeNet employees, built a Wi-Fi umbrella network around Lake Madison. At about $30 a month, the service has 100 subscribers.

"We just did it on our own, as proof of concept," Siemonsma said. He has a house up there, as do his parents. He wanted Internet, so he built it. It's not making him rich - it's not even his job - but Lake County Wi-Fi is in the black.

But Siemonsma isn't sure a mesh network like the one he built is in Sioux Falls' best interest.

"We talk about quality of living in Sioux Falls. Whether we talk about an events center or wireless Internet, the city needs to look at what amenities they want," he said.

The question is whether or not the city can build a network in a way that's cost-effective. By the time Sioux Falls got a network online, newer and better technologies could be right around the corner.

The companies that currently serve Sioux Falls - Qwest, Midcontinent Communications, SDN and others - provide a wide variety of services.

"The economics would have to be different," Siemonsma said. "I'd love to have it, but I'm also pragmatic. It has to make sense."

Public vs. private

A city-backed Wi-Fi system would compete directly with the companies already here, powerful players in the city.

"If there was a market for it, then private enterprise would step in and provide it," said Larry Toll, president of Qwest in South Dakota. "Government should stay in businesses that they are traditionally in."

As it stands, Toll said, virtually any residence or business in town has access to high-speed Internet service.

Other cities have tried large-scale municipal Wi-Fi projects and lost money, even those that originally intended for the network to be paid for by a private company without relying on tax dollars, Toll said

If the demand for subscription-based Wi-Fi isn't there, "the taxpayers are the ones who are going to end up footing the bill," Toll said. "The demand and the price are not at a point where you can make money on it, or someone would be doing it."

Midcontinent, which offers access through the coaxial cable running to nearly every residence in the city, has much the same attitude toward municipal Wi-Fi.

"I don't have a problem with giving money to companies who can provide service in unserved areas," said W. Tom Simmons, Midcontinent's vice president of public policy. "I do have a problem using public money in areas that do have service."

Midcontinent is experimenting with wireless service at the Huron Airport. The company is working on technical issues, trying to figure out whether it's a viable business model, he said.

If it makes sense technically, it's possible Midcontinent might offer wireless service to a limited area, downtown for instance, where businesses could buy service and existing residential

customers could gain access when they are in that area. But that's just speculation, Simmons points out.

"All of those things are possible," he said. "The right approach is the one our technology team takes."

Of course, if someone does see the potential for profit in a citywide subscription or advertising-subsidized mesh network, companies such as Qwest and Midcontinent stand to lose significant amounts of money as subscribers bolt to a less-expensive alternative. That's assuming a new Wi-Fi network is less expensive for subscribers than the wired service already offered here.

One city's experience

Tempe, Ariz., already is online. The city of 160,000 was one of the first of its size to try implementing municipal Wi-Fi. The results have been, at best, mixed. The city's municipal uses for the network have been a boon - public-safety personnel and city employees use it extensively. But residential customers have been slow to adopt the service due to poor reception indoors.

But even in Tempe, where a grand-scale project has netted small-scale successes, few public dollars have been lost. MobilePro, the company that installed and operates Tempe's network, invested an estimated $3 million in the project. Only the municipal applications of the network - public safety and city employee use - are subsidized. In theory, the $29.99 per month access fee for residential users will make the project profitable.

So far in Sioux Falls

There is progress in Sioux Falls.

SDN launched a Wi-Fi system for Phillips Avenue from about Ninth to 14th streets. There's currently a fee to use it, but through a partnership with Main Street Sioux Falls, the company is looking at offering it free next year, said Vernon Brown, a company spokesman and Sioux Falls city councilor.

There also are possibilities for expansion in that core retail and entertainment district, he said. But ultimately, that's not SDN's mission. The company's market is business-to-business communications.

"We got into it early to experiment with it and see how it would go," Brown said.

And that's probably where it will end for SDN.

Midcontinent might get in the game in a big way, or perhaps there's another company out there interested in providing the service. But we won't know unless we at least talk about what we want.

Reach Voices editor Patrick Lalley at plalley@argusleader.com or 331-2291. Reach reporter Nestor Ramos at nramos@argusleader.com or 331-2328.