As he addressed the attendees of a November 4 public meeting at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley was on a mission to instill a sense of urgency, even alarm. He raised the specter of that mid-19th-century moment when the city fathers chose not to build a railroad bridge over the Mississippi—and lost out to Chicago in the race to become the transport hub of the Midwest. A similar moment of truth faces St. Louis today, Dooley warned: Either get cracking on plans for free, countywide Wi-Fi or risk becoming roadkill on the information superhighway.
Dooley called on the county’s 91 municipalities to stitch together a “technology quilt” of free wireless Internet service within the next two-and-a-half years. If they pull it off, anybody with a laptop will be able to access the Internet from a bench in Shaw Park, from a canoe in the Meramec River or—here’s the best news—from the car while stuck in the eternal traffic jam that Highway 40 will become later this year.
What about St. Louis city? The city has its own plan, says Jeff Rainford, chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay, who he says is negotiating with a corporate partner to provide free Wi-Fi citywide, from Riverview Drive to the River Des Peres. “We’re in talks with some people who we think have found a way to make it work in the dynamics of the marketplace and meet the needs of the people of the city,” Rainford says.
St. Louis has heard that story before. Back in 2003, the city announced with great fanfare that it had teamed up with a local company, O2Connect, to provide free wireless Internet in a 42-square-block area of downtown. O2Connect installed and has maintained the system at its own expense. “We did it as a way to give back to the community,” says Tim O’Leary, the company’s president.
The community isn’t altogether grateful.
Rainford paints a picture of unfulfilled promises, saying the city was “never satisfied with downtown only,” but O2Connect isn’t ready to accept any blame just yet. “The city dropped the ball,” says O’Leary. It’s true that when Chris Dornfeld, the city’s information-technology director, left three years ago, interest lagged, stalling an arrangement that would have made the city’s website—complete with sports schedules and downtown event info—the home page for every user on the network.
Users complain that access is spotty, speeds are less than adequate and the signal’s reach is limited, but O’Leary defends the service: “Our speed is great, and we’re free. We carry no advertising.” But he admits that he has received many complaints from people who are unable to connect to the system and says maintenance is not the top priority for his company, which has paying clients to serve. Much of the caterwauling comes from people who have unrealistic expectations for free wireless Internet, he says: “It’s not intended for indoor use. You don’t get a good signal in an apartment. It’s outside online: Do your mail, see city promos. It does not replace DSL.”
O’Leary doesn’t know how many people are using the service—an authentication device that counted logins malfunctioned and had to be removed—but popular interest has declined since the splashy headlines of 2003. He is skeptical about City Hall’s plans: “They don’t want to pay. You get lots of announcements, little follow-through.”
Still, municipal Wi-Fi is the trend of the moment, and many local boosters don’t want St. Louis to be left behind. Tourists can check MapQuest; CEOs can check their e-mail; fans can check ballplayers’ stats. “Soon Busch Stadium will be full of people sitting with their laptops open as they watch the game,” jokes South Side resident and computer professional Michael Murphy. More seriously, AT&T’s Carl Nerup sees emergency workers benefiting from using a wireless connection. If a building were on fire, he says, “you could push building plans to a fire truck the way to fight the fire.”
St. Louis was in the vanguard of municipal Wi-Fi back when the deal with O2Connect was announced. Now other cities are catching up or passing us. Approximately 50 cities or counties offer some sort of free wireless Internet. (San Francisco, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., weren’t surprising, but now Omaha is going wireless, and in September, Springfield, Ill., announced a partnership with AT&T to provide free citywide Wi-Fi.)
AT&T’s Nerup says that Springfield’s citizens will be getting primo service, and it’ll be fast: 1 meg, which he compares to a 20-lane highway, if dial-up is one-lane. Users will be able to access the Internet with one click from practically anywhere, with minimal signal interference from the “shadows” cast by concrete buildings and trees. But why would AT&T provide a free service that competes with its own products? “We view Wi-Fi as mobility,” Nerup explains. “At home, you’ll want to plug into a wall. It’s a faster connection.” To cover the system’s expenses, Springfield’s Wi-Fi will carry advertising on a static 1-inch banner.
Is this the kind of deal St. Louis is trying to put together now? Rainford won’t say, but he insists that his boss is keen on wireless. “Mayor Slay is very interested in how to use it to close the digital divide,” Rainford says. People with low incomes lack equal access to high technology. As the theory goes, children can use a wireless network to improve their schoolwork while their parents search for jobs on the Internet and enhance their employability by becoming computer literate.
And where will they get laptops? Rainford says the city is working on that, too.
