This issue is of major significance to any government CIO who wants to gain experience with a quickly changing technology and improve government services. And those interested in implementing municipal Wi-Fi should be up to speed on the local and federal roadblocks to such projects. "If a CIO wants to take Wi-Fi to residents, they will need a legal strategy," says Neff. And while some may be reticent to battle with giant phone and cable companies, an increasing number of cities and towns are partnering with the private sector to move ahead with wireless broadband. At this point, experts say, waiting could be costly.

"This debate has been a waste of everyone’s time and money," says James Baller, a communications lawyer at Baller & Herbst Law Group in Washington, D.C., and a vocal advocate of Neff’s project. "The U.S. has fallen behind others in developing broadband infrastructure. We don’t have the luxury of continuing to bicker."

Call of the Wi-Fi

In February of 2004, 12 of Philadelphia’s top appointed officials met for their annual retreat with Mayor John Street. For Neff, the meeting at the Horticultural Society in Fairmount Park was the perfect opportunity to bring up a technology she had been following for months: Wi-Fi. Short for "Wireless Fidelity," Wi-Fi is another name for IEEE 802.11b, a trade term coined by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA).

"I told everyone there this technology could help the city complete its goals," Neff says. In Philadelphia, where 25 percent to 30 percent of the population falls under the "disadvantaged" classification, Mayor Street had embarked on an ambitious economic development plan to help poverty-stricken neighborhoods revitalize themselves. Neff felt that a program to provide computers and to train people to use them, combined with low-cost broadband access, could play an important role. Neff estimated at the time that Verizon covered 60 percent of the city’s population. Verizon countered that it covered 80 percent and now says that more than 90 percent of their lines in Philadelphia are equipped for DSL service. Still, Neff and her team surveyed residents and found that those with dial-up service or no Internet said DSL or cable broadband was too expensive. (Verizon offers DSL for as low as $14.95, but only when it’s bundled with phone service. Faster services cost $29.95 a month. (Comcast also offers higher-cost services that include bundled TV, cable access to the Internet and digital phone service.)

In June 2004, the city set up free Wi-Fi access in central Love Park, using wireless "mesh" technology. Wireless mesh essentially consists of network nodes placed on city streetlights and poles or other access points and allows wireless connectivity beyond a single "hot spot." Before wireless mesh came along, some kind of "backhaul," or Internet access fiber, was necessary at each hot spot, meaning Internet users could get access at the coffee shop or airline terminal but not beyond a small area. After residents responded enthusiastically to the pilot, the city created a nonprofit organization to oversee its expansion.