Boston politicians and other influential leaders said converting to free or low-cost citywide wireless internet is imperative to maintaining the city’s prestige and competitiveness among cities around the world, and that without WiFi residents will be at a distinct disadvantage, at a forum sponsored by the nonprofit Boston Foundation and the Museum of Science yesterday.
“There’s a lot at stake here for Boston,” said Paul Grogan, CEO of the Boston Foundation. “Education is our key comparative advantage, and WiFi is an essential tool for life as we move forward in the ‘knowledge economy.'”
Grogan compared the potential of the wireless broadband program WiFi to that of the first telephone network, and said Boston must move quickly or Boston will lose its title as a global technology leader.
Speakers including City Councilor John Tobin (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) presented the findings at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, concluding that unless everyone in the city can have in-home access to the internet, they will be left at an “immense disadvantage.”
Besides maintaining Boston’s competitiveness in the world economy, Grogan said the WiFi program will help bridge the local economic barriers.
“It is critical for us to close the ‘digital divide’ that separates us into the ‘haves and the have-not’ populations,” Grogan said in a press release.
According to the Boston Foundation report, the minority groups in Boston formed the majority of the population in 2000, and internet is less accessible for minorities, excluding Asian Americans. Access also decreases in proportion to income and education levels, and so the report suggests public internet is a necessity for most residents of the city.
The report addressed specific challenges facing the plan. Older computers are incompatible with wireless technology, so providing for affordable home computers must be a component of the program, the Boston Foundation suggested.
Due to the need for free or affordable services, Tobin encouraged an audience of businesspeople and technological corporation representatives to consider developing funding partnerships with Boston and shouldering part of the cost taxpayers would have to face.
Other cities have used private funding to help alleviate public costs. San Francisco is scheduled to complete its wireless network by Feb. 21 and Philadelphia will finish by the end of the year, both with costs ranging from $8 million to $18 million apiece.
They are among 186 other cities and counties in the country which are developing similar programs.
The report also chronicles the progress Boston has made wirelessly thus far. Currently, the city has a wireless police station, 27 public library branches and select universities, low-income housing developments, cafes and businesses.
Geeta Pradhan, co-author of the report, said these “hot spots” need to be connected together.
“Lots of experimentation is already happening,” she said. “We just need a strategy to adapt to our changing population and growing needs.”
A task force of representatives from the fields of technology, education, government and community will begin meeting the first week of March and will make tangible goals for the mayor’s wireless program by mid-summer.
The Boston Foundation report recommends that the task force create a realistic timetable, examine security, privacy and interference issues and make attainable long-term goals.