City officials are excited about the prospect of a wireless Boston, and rightfully so. Imagine being able to take your laptop to the Boston Common or the Esplanade on a warm spring day as you work from one of the most beautiful spots in the city.
Mayor Menino would like to make this a reality, as he indicated yesterday with his announcement of a new wireless task force. But is Boston really ready to be wireless? The city’s recent history and current fiscal situation indicate otherwise.
To make a city as large as Boston completely wireless would require a plan that transcends the bureaucracies of local and state government. Boston is full of conflicting authorities that make it hard to implement large-scale plans. The Big Dig, though much more massive than a wireless project would be, is a good example of how ambitious proposals can quickly get bogged down and put a strain on city resources.
Wireless internet is an advanced technology that can’t be put into place overnight; implementing it would be a slow process full of starts and stops. As the city struggles to fund vital initiatives, such as cutting down on crime, it would be unwise to rush into a wireless project that may very well become costly and time-consuming.
Instead of attempting the immediate, full-scale implementation of wireless, Menino should consider testing out the technology on a smaller scale. If wireless is a success in, say, the Back Bay, the city could then consider expanding it to other neighborhoods.
The city can also reach a partial solution by encouraging universities to expand their preexisting wireless networks. College students and recent college graduates are a primary market for wireless internet, and in a city defined by its many institutions of higher education, it’s only natural that universities would lead the wireless revolution. The city should encourage universities to develop their networks through financial incentives, though it’s already in schools’ best interests to go wireless, as it would only make them more attractive to prospective students.
Wireless internet is clearly the wave of the future; its arrival Boston is both inevitable and necessary. But the city must wait until the time is right to make wireless a full-scale reality, and that time is not now.