Silicon Valley:Unplugged

This blog speaks discusses the September 5th press release about Silicon Valley awarding a municipal WiFi contract to a consortium of companies including Cisco, Azulstar, IBM, and SeaKay to serve 2.4 million people with a free 1 MBPS connection. How the prospect of free municipal WiFi and the upcoming rollout of WiMAX will affect 3G rollout plans from cellular carriers is indeed debatable


In the short term, it seems unlikely that it will have any impact on 3G services like EV-DO and HSDPA, which are becoming widespread with coverage. but this could change in the long term depending on consumer preferences for large WiFi environments or demand for wireless connectivity along with mobility outside of those large 'hot-spots'.

Source:
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2006/09/mesh_comes_of_age_in_silicon_v.html