Free City WiFi vs. 3G/EVDO/HSDPA

Michael · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:01 pm Post subject: Free City WiFi vs. 3G/EVDO/HSDPA

An interesting article about how "Free City Wifi" is working in one city:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/04/24/wifi.hiccups.ap/index.html
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MatrixGSR · EVDO Newbie Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 3

Wifi is the only way to go right now. If you don't live in a city with the population in the millions, you're not going to get anything. I'm here in Hagerstown and I have a better chance stealing WIFI (don't condone it) than I do trying to get legit service.

Might as well kiss EV-DO to the grave as soon as bigger companies take advantage of Wi-Max... Like that will ever happen here.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

The link is broken.

Of the 1000+ towns over 20K, I highly doubt even a 0.5% will be 100% covered with free WiFi in a few years. EVDO already covers half the US population and continues to grow at a much much faster rate of coverage than broadly deployed WiFi. Sprint claims they'll have EVDO in almost all areas by end of next year (except iPCS areas), so in most cases if you get a voice signal, you'll get EVDO.

WiFi wasn't designed for metro-wide or even city-wide coverage. A WiFi site covers maybe 300 feet while EVDO covers ~2-4 miles and WiMAX can do ~3-6 miles. But WiMAX isn't exactly easy to deploy metro-wide unless you are a carrier that already has pre-existing cellsites. Some municipalities might be able to pull WiMAX off. But for better or worse, the carriers will continue to rule metrowide and particularly nationwide coverage long term.