Out of Control

In the end, Nowe and fellow city officials sounded more like corporate chief information officers describing a centralized, enterprise-wide technology integration project. In fact, the word “broadband” was not used until almost two hours into the presentations.

Their implication was that too many cities and towns approach municipal wireless as a retail Internet service, usually in competition with established providers, with a rather naïve belief that once WiFi antennas were atop poles, broadband use would explode and a spurt local economic growth would follow. Alan Shark, executive director of PTI, which consulted with Corpus Christi throughout the project, said the current wave municipal pullbacks is due in large part to hype and overpromises, especially the idea that muni wireless would be free.

Indeed, the Corpus Christi project involved strong internal and external communications and managed expectations from the beginning, said Nowe. The effort began with a proposal by the municipal gas and water companies to automate meter readings. The idea snowballed into a broader investigation on how city could improve services and cut costs by migrating time- and paper-intensive work to a wireless network.

The strategy from the start was to align the interests of numerous city departments, police, fire, education, licensing, etc., and develop a business plan that could effectively meet their needs yet measure and monitor results, not just in terms of money, but savings in man-hours, reduced response times, and better citizen accessibility to basic city services. That in turn allows for validation of the strategy, acceptable return on investment, and an ability to make adjustments when necessary.

While the municipal gas and water utility initially contracted and built the system, funding it with $7 million in loans, its plan was never to manage and operate the system. The city sold the system to EarthLink for $5.3 million, plus a franchise agreement that calls for the company to pay five percent of its revenues to the city over the course of the 10-year deal. In return, the city agrees to commit to purchase of $450,000 in services for 2007, although if the city fails to reach that plateau in 2007, the payments will be credited toward billings next year.

In addition to automatic meter reading, Corpus Christi police, fire and ambulance corps use the network for various applications, from real-time search of license plate records to relaying building plans from a building department database to firefighters at a scene, to forwarding real time patient data from ambulances to hospitals.

Digital divide issues are only be addressed now, in the project’s second phase. Even then, the city is being careful not to overhype the capabilities. “We were not gong to be in the business of being an [Internet Service Provider],” said Susan Cable, Corpus Christi’s former director of e-government services, who has continued working with the city as a consultant for e.Services. Among the aspects the city emphasized was that WiFi works best outdoors, there was a timetable for build-out, service would no longer be free after build-out was completed, and that quality of connections could sometimes depend on the power and capabilities of the consumer’s PC or laptop.

To address digital inclusion issues, the city has established the Corpus Christi Digital Community Development Corp., a nonprofit group that primarily looks to develop e-government applications that give the WiFi network, and Internet connectivity broader appeal across larger portions of the population. While this may include free connectivity and training, it also addresses ways city government agencies can use the Internet to make it easier for two-family households, infirm or disabled persons to do business with the city, from filling out forms that would require a trip downtown, to filing theft reports, to paying taxes, fees and performing other transactions.

Services such as these, Cable said, although they require creativity on the part of city government, provide reasons for individuals who might at first see little value in the Internet to go online. Overall, she added, they might work better at achieving inclusiveness rather than simply building network infrastructure.

Moreover, Corpus left politics out of it. Corpus did not do muni to compete with the private sector, or address some kind of perceived market failure. Its mayor did not use the idea to attempt to score points by attacking local phone and cable companies, or to create a political legacy. Quite the contrary, getting department-by-department buy-in was the principle challenge. People like Nowe, Martinez and Cable successfully identified the champions in the city government who could help them affect change.

As muni wireless comes under criticism, more and more defenders will point to Corpus Christi as proof that the concept works. Trouble is, most cities still harbor the notion that muni wireless amounts to paying a company as little as possible to set up a bunch of hot spots, sitting back and waiting for revenues or savings to come in. Getting muni wireless done right is hard work. Most cities are either not prepare, or not willing, to work the applications end as hard as the infrastructure. That’s why it’s not so much of a surprise to see the muni pullbacks we are.