I remember as a city councillor believing there had to be a way to provide city-wide Wi-Fi to keep Vancouver competitive in the race for economic development. I also felt – and still do – that universal Internet access is a basic piece of infrastructure for a modern democratic city. I also remember how city staff rolled their eyes when my motion passed to investigate city-wide Wi-Fi, especially when it stipulated that the rollout couldn’t cost the city any money.At the time, numerous cities had attracted private providers of municipal Wi-Fi, others (most notably Fredericton, New Brunswick) had financed it themselves to attract jobs, and others had justified the costs by using it to save money on data transmission for city services like police, fire and building inspection.
Flash forward to 2012: I can only imagine the city staff’s optical gymnastics when Vancouver city council recently passed a motion to set them off in search of the holy V-pole, a figment of artist/writer/sculptor Doug Coupland’s wondrous creative imagination. Coupland dreamed up the so-called V-pole (V as in Vancouver) as a candy-cane-striped all-purpose utility pole that would be a combination street light, wireless transmitter, electric car charging station, parking payment stand, electronic notice-board and dog identity station. (OK, the last item is a possible unintended consequence.)
It was rolled out by Coupland, in tandem with Mayor Gregor Robertson, at a conference in Paris.
Once unleashed, the mayor had to put the pole where his mouth was, so to speak. Hence the staff directive to investigate Coupland’s imagination.
Telus, meanwhile, was back in the real world winning Vancouver Park Board approval for three unfortunately named Monopoles on Pacific Avenue: cell signal boosters sweetened with electric vehicle recharging plugs, based on actual scientific research by qualified engineers.
Flash back again to 2007 and one of the more embarrassing presentations of my life. It was at a conference in Taipei on municipal adoption of broadband technologies. As I struggled to wring some substance out of Vancouver’s virtual non-policy, I was mercilessly upstaged by presentations on the extensive, well-financed plans in various Asian cities. They were rapidly expanding accessible broadband services, converting government services to electronic delivery, promoting the city as a place where broadband is ubiquitous and, of course, building business parks where all the necessary equipment could be made. Real jobs. Export revenue. Tax revenue. Radical new services, like the card in Taipei that pays for subways, taxis, parking and buses and doubles as a child-finder and a library card for checking out books at unstaffed automated self-serve libraries open 24/7.
I’ve just come back from a trip to Copenhagen, where Wi-Fi is available on all city buses, a simple move that transforms commuter time into productivity for bus riders who don’t have mobile internet access.
When staff reported back on my dream of city-wide Wi-Fi, they couldn’t find any company to take all the risks. By then, the leading private sector players were pulling out of other cities, especially in the U.S., where telecommunications companies were blocking city-run projects through state legislation.
A few weeks ago, Seattle announced that it was abandoning its $50 million experiment to provide “community wireless service” in a selected area downtown. There are still 54 U.S. cities with publicly owned networks, but the world seems to be shifting to hotspots in coffee shops, community centres, libraries, universities, colleges, schools, airports and hotel lobbies. Want free Wi-Fi? Stand outside a Starbucks.
Or you could wait around for a V-pole to pop up in your neighbourhood. That could take quite a while. •
