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With an increasing number of urban and rural municipalities setting up or proposing WiFi networks, one Canadian communications expert is advising a healthy dose of caution.
City planners should focus on creating and implementing an appropriate business model rather than merely on technology, said William Bangert, senior vice-president, information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, Bell Canada.
Bangert was speaking at the recently concluded Wireless Cities Summit in Toronto. "Let the technology fit the mission rather than the mission fit the technology,” Bangert said. He emphasized that no single gadget could provide the answer to a city's connectivity needs.
The Bell Canada executive said municipal planners should seriously consider vital questions such as:
• Why would the municipality want a WiFi network?
• Who will benefit and what areas should the network serve?
• Where will funding come from, and how may the network's full potential be realized without exhausting the municipality's budget?
• How may the system be sustained, maintained and improved down the road? Bangert said municipalities should "focus on [their] core competencies and partner with experts to gain greater success."
At least one conference participant, however, thought this comment could be used to bolster a vendor's position.
"Doesn't it have the effect of scaring (municipalities)?" asked Andrew Clement, professor of information studies at the Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto.
Clement agrees municipalities should carefully plan out the network strategy but said Bangert "seems to be saying leave the technical stuff to us, you don't know anything about it."
A telecommunications analyst agrees with the view that municipalities should look – long and hard - before they leap into WiFi.
"What's the reason for doing this? If you can't answer that question, don't even bother," said Roberta Fox, principal at telecommunications consultancy firm Fox Group in Mount Albert, Ont.
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