If municipal WiFi comes to your neighborhood, will you just go with that as your sole means of internet access and ditch your cable or DSL service?
A new report from Strategy Analytics says "no," consumers won't do that, at least for a while. The study forecasts that by 2010, about 6 million homes throughout the country will access citywide wireless networks. However, they believe that only a few of these households will rely on just these networks and not their cable or DSL hookups.
The feeling is that broadband services offered by telcos and cable companies will come down in price as they compete to keep their customers from bolting to muni WiFi, and there is still some skepticism as to whether these citywide networks will offer the speed and services they have been promising.
In any event, muni WiFi will have a significant impact on broadband internet access, and time will tell if it will supplant or augment cable and DSL service in the next few years.
