Vendors vie

As the government plans to outsource the project, wireless vendors naturally vie for the gig. Building a Wi-Fi bubble is roughly similar to constructing a mobile phone network: multiple APs provide extensive coverage - at least in the built-up urban areas. But building a publicly accessible high-tech infrastructure isn't straightforward.

According to George Manuelien, Cisco Systems senior manager of product management, broadband aggregation, accurate site surveys are critical. "We got a bid to survey the Midwestern American city of Madison, Wisconsin," he said, "and did so in the winter, when the trees were free of foliage. Once the leaves came out in spring, the landscape had changed and so had the specs [of the system]."

The message is clear: due diligence and pre-planning are critical in determining the overall structure of a Wi-Fi bubble, which will become part of the city's infrastructure. Environmental conditions must be considered: Manuelien explained that in the Madison system, the APs have built-in heaters (powered by POE: Power Over Ethernet) to prevent ice formation on the devices. While ice isn't a problem in Hong Kong, the anecdote serves as a reminder for due diligence in surveying the site - the HKSAR is a mountainous region with densely populated areas, outlying islands, and a substantial land border with the Shenzhen SEZ (Special Economic Zone).

Both Cisco and Nortel Networks offer end-to-end wireless network gear based on the "mesh" principle. The idea is to create a redundant network that doesn't slip into "valleys" between hot spots.

"We have a tremendous amount of experience in building large scale Wi-Fi networks," said David Wong, managing director, Hong Kong, Macau & South China. "Some examples of Nortel's Wi-Fi networks include the Taipei Cybercity project and the Golden Telecom Wi-Fi Network in Moscow." Wong also said that his firm has demonstration centres in Taipei and Beijing to demonstrate its wireless mesh network, and it plans to establish a similar demo centre in Hong Kong.

Wong added that his firm's wireless products "work in conjunction with other Wi-Fi products from other vendors for real-time image monitoring, Wi-Fi on high-speed transportation, RFID and more. Our WLAN solution is built on industry-standard 802.11 technology and is also highly compatible with other vendors' platforms and legacy networks."

"Municipal Wi-Fi provides a platform for new services," said Matt Kolon, chief technology officer (CTO), Asia Pacific, Juniper Networks. "But how can users conveniently pay for those services?" Kolon suggested that payment gateways must work on all devices, including handhelds like PDAs, with the most obvious solution being existing mobile-provider billing systems.

The Juniper CTO said his firm was doing well with its SDX product, a service deployment system designed to rapidly create and deploy new IP services to subscribers, including video on demand, IPTV, and integrated voice and data. "This has become big business for us," said Kolon. "It used to be how fast you could throw [data] packets through the air, now users are more interested in control and intelligence."

The business of bubbles

"As regards the impact on mobile network operators, it is believed to be minimal, and if any on the positive side," said Mak. He said that increased use of mobile services "will have positive impact on the ecosystem of the mobile industry at the macro level, and will bring benefits to all industry players irrespective of the technology they are providing".

"Nor would free government-supplied Wi-Fi compete with 3G," claimed Mak. "Wi-Fi technology has its own unique characteristics in terms of speed, data capacity and mobility which are different from those of other mobile technologies such as 3G. Wi-Fi is therefore not considered as directly competing with other technologies."

"Critics in Hong Kong claim that by providing free service to citizens, the government is intervening in the market," said Sin from LegCo. "By limiting free service to government premises, the HKSAR government effectively bars itself from competing with the market. Indeed, in light of the tedious and bureaucratic procedures of approval-seeking from government departments, most commercial operators did not consider installing hot spots on government premises a viable option."

But not everyone agrees. "We are seeking further details and clarification about the proposal on the provisioning of Wi-Fi service in government venues for free use by Hong Kong citizens," said Hubert Ng, CEO at Hong Kong-based mobile operator Hong Kong CSL. "We are of the view that the details on two issues (1. fair competition and 2. [the] licensing regime) should be carefully reviewed and need to be considered in light of existing consultations with the industry before any decision is made."

"In any case," added Ng, "it should not be implemented in outdoor areas such as public parks, as government should not waste public funds in areas which are already well-covered by existing mobile broadband services."

Don't think we've heard the end of this potential speed bump on the road to seamless free Wi-Fi.

Mesh gears

Wi-Fi bubbles work best when coverage is seamless, and vendors are now constructing "mesh" networks, where APs communicate with each other and "self-heal" in case of any single-point failure or interruption.

The idea of the "mesh" is to provide redundant coverage - if an AP stops working, other APs re-route their traffic to compensate, all controlled by a central unit.

"A wireless mesh is formed among multiple wireless APs by utilizing auto-discovery and self-routing technology," said Wong from Nortel. "These units also act as WLAN Access Points for user access."

"The overlapping mesh network infrastructure is self-healing," said Cisco on its Web site. "If one or more access point nodes stop working, neighboring access points will detect the lapse and pick up the transmission workload with no disruption. Mesh wireless networks can cover greater distances than bridged wireless networks because the meshed nodes act as repeaters, passing radio signals along until the wired Internet connection is found. Expanding the network just requires more access points; no new bridges or hubs are needed."