Print 12 comment(s) - last by JKolstad.. on Mar 18 at 12:24 PM

The city plans to pay for the venture itself entirely







Source: Computer World

Comments     Threshold


RE: Not free
By JKolstad on 3/18/2012 12:24:22 PM , Rating: 2
A couple of points:

"Nothing is free" is only true if you believe that the economy is a zero sum game. There's lot of "technology" where the cost of providing it is small enough for the provider that through advertising or whatever that provider not only provides the consumer with something truly "free" *but also makes money themselves*. Think, e.g., Google and the myriad of Google apps out there. Heck, LibreOffice is even more "free" and a spectacularly powerful bit of technology.

The article suggests to me that the city is going to try to get this thing to pay for itself.

I agree you do have to look at the expected ROI if you're going to engage in deficit spending. 4 years would actually be a spectacularly fast payback -- even at 10 years, they'd be getting a better return than if they were to invest money in a bank.

Also keep in mind that while it's great when the government does something with a clear-cut ROI, unlike a public business, there's nothing that says that's a requirement in the first place: Government's primary purpose is to just represent the people and do our bidding; things like the public education system and public transportation and public libraries have difficult-to-quantify ROIs, yet most people still very much support those programs just because it does seem like the "right thing" to do in a society.

Secondly... you're certainly correct that almost everyone likely to access WiFi probably has a smartphone that can do so over the cellular networks. However, remember that other than Sprint all the major carriers today have rationed their data usage, so most smartphone users today actively seek out and use WiFi when it's available. Additionally, WiFi is typically (though not always) faster than the available 2G/3G/4G cellular connections. Finally, if you have a laptop, many people would prefer a simple WiFi connection over tethering to their phone, which -- depending on the carrier -- is somewhere between a small hassle, to something simple but that you pay for, to something that's outright prohibited and requires significant effort to do.


Related Articles
