Access to the Internet has become a necessity these days. Both the United Nations and the creator of the internet have argued that access to it is a human right, and it's hard to ignore the increasing difficulty of participating in modern society without it. Arguments for and against things like net neutrality, and efforts by municipalities to provide free Wi-Fi access illustrate challenges to providing equitable internet access to the masses. During the mid-2000's, a few cities took on the challenge of providing free Wi-Fi within city boundaries, and one of the biggest efforts was here in the Inland Empire.

When I first learned that the City of Riverside had free public Wi-Fi in 2007 I was intrigued. This was before the iPad and smartphones were so prolific, so it meant carrying my laptop around with me if I wanted to take advantage of the service. But while it was mostly novelty for me, the intent of the program was not trivial. The City wanted to provide thousands of low-income residents a way to connect. On April 26, 2006, it released an RFP for the creation of such a network through its Smart Riverside digital inclusion program, and awarded the contract to AT&T and MetroFi. The RFP specified that the system be available for public use, as well as for the City's own public safety purposes, and that it cover the entire city without prejudice to wealthier neighborhoods or areas with higher density.

Only about 25% of the system was built before MetroFi shut down in 2008, but Nokia Siemens continued to build about three quarters of the project, and it continued to operate until May 2014, when the City Council voted to dismantle it. The City had been providing free computers and wireless cards to families who made less than $45,000 a year, but by 2014, city statistics showed that only about 5% of those devices logged on to the network. About 42,000 devices logged in each month, but roughly half of those users logged in only once or twice a month. In the end, the city had a hard time justifying the cost of maintaining the network.

But Riverside wasn't the only City to dismantle its network, in fact dozens of cities struggle with municipal WiFi, including San Francisco and Portland. A major reason for this was the cost of maintaining the system. As the firms who installed these networks pulled out, cities had to take on the cost of keeping up with quickly changing technology. This meant regularly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new equipment so that the networks could continue to run fast enough.

Today, with 4G LTE networks and free Wi-Fi in many businesses, it's hard to justify the need for free municipal Wi-Fi. Although it would provide a benefit to low-income residents, investments will not be made into a system that is not cost effective, and these families will see no benefit from a system that doesn't work at all. The idea for a municipal public Wi-Fi system seems great in theory, but at the speed that technology changes, and the investment required to keep it up to date, it's hard to justify at the municipal level.

How often would you use free public WiFi if it were offered in your city? Does your city offer city-wide free WiFi? Share your thoughts and stories in the comments area below. 

Credits: Images and data linked to sources.