Stimulus Could Revitalize Muni Wi-Fi, Other Stalled Projects
Could US$7.2 billion in federal funds committed to boost broadband in the U.S. transform small towns like Truckee, Calif., into the next Mumbai, India, filled with beehives of call centers that employ local residents?
The money won't be a major boon to any one town, certainly not on the scale of Mumbai, a major city famous for its many call centers that handle technical support calls from U.S. computer users.
But the federal money is seen by many broadband analysts as a critical means of building new or completing hundreds of stalled municipal Wi-Fi and other broadband projects nationwide.
The money could definitely breath life back into the old, mostly failed municipal Wi-Fi movement that first came to life in 2004 and deteriorated to a terminal state last year, said Craig Settles, an analyst and president of consulting firm Successful.com.
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