Colorado high on Wi-Fi

State trails only Rhode Island, Ohio in wireless investment

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 5, 2006 at midnight

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Colorado ranks third in the country in investment in wireless (Wi-Fi) technology.

CDW Government Inc., a subsidiary of the $6.3 billion CDW Corp., examined the purchase records of several thousand of its public-sector customers from 2000 to 2005 and came up with a ranking of states.

Colorado came in third in wireless investment, behind Rhode Island and Ohio. CDW-G characterized Rhode Island as a "lead investor" and Ohio, Colorado and five other states as "early investors," or states that scan the best technology and adopt it as soon as appropriate.

The records indicate that government entities in Colorado "saw the opportunity and productivity gains (Wi-Fi) would have for citizens and employees," said Alan Weiss, director of state and local sales for CDW-G.

INPUT, which researches the government market, recently estimated that the U.S. wireless market will quadruple from $500 million in 2005 to more than $2 billion by 2008. The research group noted that the market is growing rapidly because wireless has proved to be a cost-effective and quick way to develop high-speed Internet services in metropolitan and rural areas. Many of those services are being used for public safety and convenience.

Since CDW-G's study is drawn from its own customer base, it doesn't offer a definitive analysis of what's going on. However, the results mirror recent studies that find communities and consumers in Colorado, especially along the Front Range, tend to be early adopters of technology.

The report by CDW-G cites four examples of how Wi-Fi has been deployed in recent years in Colorado:

• A city of Boulder project to implement the technology in main government offices.

• Denver City Council's approval of a five-year contract for AT&T Wireless to install wireless communications at Denver International Airport.

• The Colorado Springs Police Department's deployment of a wireless network that supports operations for hundreds of police officers.

• The Salida Police Department's installation of a Wi-Fi switch that creates a citywide hot zone accessible by specially equipped Panasonic laptops.

The report didn't track other kinds of wireless technology, such as "mesh" technology being installed by CenturyTel in Vail, or Wi-Max, a technology Qwest Communications has been testing in Mead.

Mesh networks involve configuring transmitters or nodes in such a way that an area is blanketed with coverage and not disrupted when a node goes down. Vail alone is expected to have about 85 nodes installed for its townwide network.

Wi-Max has sometimes been referred to as Wi-Fi on steroids, with its antennae and equipment able to transmit over a range of miles rather than hundreds of feet, as with a typical Wi-Fi setup. Wi-Max also potentially offers larger bandwidth capacity.

"We are speaking to customers about mesh and Wi-Max," Weiss said. But mesh technology costs more than Wi-Fi, and Wi-Max "is probably still a ways away," he said. "Even 802.11 (Wi-Fi) has taken years to build momentum."In Vail, CenturyTel plans to spend $500,000 to build the mesh network and $400,000 a year to maintain it. The Monroe, La.-based company is using the project as a model and plans to offer free service in one-hour increments but hopes to recoup at least some of its costs through longer-term, higher-speed subscriptions.

Big telecommunications companies like Qwest have been critical of municipalities' building their own broadband Internet systems for the public. But some municipalities complain that telcos have been too slow to provide Internet services.

Qwest has already seen many municipalities in its 14-state region build either Wi-Fi or fiber-optic networks.

Weiss said it isn't his role to offer an opinion on the issue.

But he noted: "Our data indicates public-private partnerships have been effective driving (Wi-Fi) investment. Whether or not that's the best approach really depends on what's best for (the municipality) and what level of management they want."

Wireless Investment Index

1. Rhode Island

2. Ohio

3. Colorado

4. Utah

5. California

6. Oregon

7. Washington

8. Wyoming

9. Florida

10. New York

smithje@RockyMountainNews or 303-954-5155

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