The Potential

Municipal networking projects have the potential to stimulate economic development, improve education, and strengthen communities.

Municipalities that invest in broadband demonstrate economic growth rates that are as much as double communities that do not make that investment.
Electronic resources that are physically limited to schools at the moment greatly improve traditional and adult education opportunities.
Municipal networks provide the opportunity for citizens and neighbors to collaborate on locally-focused projects, like community renewal, and improve existing projects, like Neighborhood Watch.

The Challenge

Realizing a municipal network is tricky. Everyone has a stake in the project, and many people have conflicting stakes. Not-for-profit organizations, civic entities, educational institutions, and small and medium-size businesses will likely be in favor of the project. On the other hand, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) might initially feel threatened. Cable providers will feel that they are treated unfairly by the franchising license.

To complicate matters, not all voices are equally able to get their message across because large national and multinational companies are able to leverage advertising departments and massive budgets against local interests. In Geneva, Illinois, one telecommunications company spent at least $3 million to defeat a municipal broadband initiative. Their advertising campaign included push polling, where they pitted funding for schools against the broadband initiative and equated municipal broadband service with pornography.

In this kind of environment, it is easy to feel like the city officials will be forced to decide between the winners and losers.

Getting to Win-Win

Municipal broadband services can be “win-win” within the local community. Municipalities can get the service they want and cost recovery mechanisms. Local ISPs can be more profitable and provide high-grade professional services. Residents can get reliable, affordable broadband service in their homes, their businesses, and their schools. All of this for considerably less than current market prices suggest.

How do we do that?

Open Source: Open source technologies allow the user to know how the system operates. This means that one is free to tweak the software to meet their needs. It also means avoiding the substantial licensing fees and upgrading costs of proprietary systems. CUWiN’s commitment to open source is demonstrated by our own software, which is free for everyone to use.

Off the Shelf Technology: Off the shelf devices are cheaper and easier to upgrade than their custom-built counterparts. For example, given two equally priced and equally powerful nodes, it makes sense to choose the device that has a radio you can swap out for something faster and better. Proprietary technology doesn’t allow you to do that without substantial further investment.

Transparency: Many consultants only know a few technologies, and they are often vendors for those technologies. You might not be sure whether their profit motive is coloring their judgement. CUWiN is a not-for-profit organization. What motivates us is well-designed communication infrastructures that meet your needs. We aren’t going to try to sell you something you don’t want or don’t need.

Our Services

We offer a wide range of services to meet your individual needs.

Site Surveys: Every good wireless installation begins with a site survey. Many companies make municipal proposals by taking applying a formula that is limited to one or two readings from prime locations. The result is a network that fails to meet the promises made.

Installation and Maintenance Training: We can install networks with the best of them, but that leaves you reliant on us to maintain your network. We have found that a better solution is to train local people to do the installation and maintenance, as it reduces the long-term costs of the project.

Feature Development: Sometimes the technology you choose doesn’t come with a feature you would really like to have already installed. In many cases, we can develop that feature and hone it to meet the needs of your network.

Rates
Our standard consulting rate is $120 per hour plus expenses. We offer substantially reduced rates for not-for-profit organizations. Contact us today for more information.

Sascha Meinrath
Senior Network Engineer
[email protected]
+1 (202) 986-2700 x226