Question Is there such a thing as Free Municiple Wi-Fi?

[kojack0]

I completed a small report on Cities that were going to offer or advertise free City wide WIFI. Anyone know of a city anywhere that is actually offering free WIFI. I am not referring to restaurant/cafe Hotspots. Numerous states have put in place laws restricting Municiple owned ISP's.

 

[Tech Junky]

I think it's more isolated near city owned property rather than a blanket coverage of the city at large.

The issue where the laws come into play are the cable providers / telcos lobbying to block muni coverage because it cuts into their profits when someone lives close enough to the network and doesn't need to subscribe to a service.

Being a NE though I keep up on some of this stuff but, haven't actually attempted to go find a signal to verify. When I go hunting for a signal it's usually easier to find a broadcasting xfinitywifi to connect to or a business that has an open SSID.

For instance when I'm messing with my car the flashing program I use needs internet to update the software before applying it to the ECU. I usually just connect to WIFI with the laptop and go from there. If I need something a bit more stable / reliable then putting the phone into hotspot mode works best.

 

[kojack0]

Well, in reading all the articles that were posted. Most of them were several years old and at the time there was A lot of hoopla about providing the free Wi-Fi to get people to come to the cities to visit or move there, depending on the job careers and lifestyles. I even read some articles about the bigger cities overseas that boast free Wi-Fi, but when you get down to it from Tourist information. Then you find out it's about hot spots and Free Wi-Fi from different cafes and restaurants. Some do offer limited 1-2 hour connection per day with as little as providing an email address. As you mentioned thy talked about Xfinity Wi-Fi.

 

[Tech Junky]

Muni WIFI probably gained some ground with the pandemic though but, it's still limited in deployment. Now, on the other hand if you look for Muni Fiber ISP's those would be a good indicator of potential Muni AP's being deployed along side the network.

https://toolkit.fiberbroadband.org/p/cm/ld/fid=102

Municipal Broadband Remains Roadblocked In 16 States - BroadbandNow

For decades, municipal broadband operations have been subject to a minefield of restrictions and barriers designed to make the prospect of establishing or maintaining a community broadband network costly, difficult, and unsustainable. The Biden administration initially pledged that the Broadband...

broadbandnow.com

There's plenty of entanglement for muni's to deal with trying to get a network up and running with legacy laws for incumbents in place still.

 

[pcslookout]

I completed a small report on Cities that were going to offer or advertise free City wide WIFI. Anyone know of a city anywhere that is actually offering free WIFI. I am not referring to restaurant/cafe Hotspots. Numerous states have put in place laws restricting Municiple owned ISP's.

Why? There is 4g and 4g lte everywhere mostly.