Municipal Broadband (also called Municipal Wi-Fi, MuniWiFi or Mu-Fi) is the concept of publically financed wireless internet, or Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi can be completely financed by local governments, but as the practice is emerging it appears more common to be a collaboration between government and private interests.[1][2][3]
Municipal broadband deployment is most commonly deployed with the help of thousands of overlapping Wi-Fi service zones to provide blanket coverage over a municipal area. The concept promises to provide free basic high-speed wireless Internet access for all homes, schools and virtually every place else in a city, with premium services being offered at better prices than most other Internet providers.
Municipal WiFi is commonly attained by utilizing mesh networks to effectively implement a self-forming, self-healing broadband network.
External Links[]
- Municipal Networks news items from the Benton Foundation
- MuniWireless
- Wi-Fi news from the Whats New Media blog
- Municipal broadband and wireless projects map from C|NET
- Municipal Broadband: An In-Depth Look from the National Journal
- Municipal broadband deployment set to double in 2006 from Ars