Will WiFi provide the answer?

Several of the UK’s largest cities are poised to go live with broad-reaching WiFi projects this month.

Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and parts of London will all introduce WiFi to city centres.

The growth of WiFi-enabled zones in towns and cities across the country has made the UK the second most wireless nation in the world, surpassed only by the US, according to consultancy JiWire. Citizens and businesses can now use public wireless networks to link to high-speed internet services from wireless laptops and PDAs.

But some experts question whether wireless networks, without being linked to strong business plans, are commercially viable in their current form.
Many of the projects are being financed by local councils, something that may not be sustainable in the longer term because existing wireless internet transmitters are likely to become obsolete within a few years, says KPMG associate director for telecoms Gary Taylor.

‘The main reasons put forward for city centre wireless projects have mainly been qualitative. They are said to deal with issues such as the improvement of the quality of life or bridging the digital divide,’ he said.

‘Enhancing the perception of a local authority as receptive to technology businesses is another reason sometimes given.’

Jim Norton, senior policy advisor at the Institute of Directors, also has doubts about how WiFi can fund itself. In the long term the solution may be to charge for periods of use, he says.

‘As these networks become more popular there will be greater loads on the systems and extra investment will be needed to expand capacity,’ he said.

There is also confusion about what will happen to WiFi when WiMax is introduced. WiMax transmitters will have a greater range than WiFi predecessors, covering areas several kilometres wide and providing support for multimedia applications such as mobile television. WiFi hotspots only have an effective range of 300 metres.

WiMax has the potential to cover all of London, for example, rather than just small sections, says Norton.

‘If you’re talking about just the Square Mile, WiFi is fine, but if you really wanted to cover the whole of London then WiMax is the machine for the job. But it’s a couple of years away at least,’ he said.

Dr Eamonn O’Neill, an expert in human computer interactions at the University of Bath, believes that wireless systems should be treated as a pervasive aspect of urban design.

‘These kinds of devices might be fitted in a car or your iPod and will be able to interact with other machines without any human input,’ he said.

‘They could even be displayed in shops or at a digital bus stop telling you when the next bus is coming along. Eventually it could even include wearable computers that we carry around with us in clothing.’

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