On Helsinki and the importance of internet infrastructure.

"Helsinki's Wi-Fi Is Super Fast, City-Wide—and Free."

Of course, there are caveats. Finland is not America, and government works differently there. Still, as our local economic development officials lob the usual blobs of cash at the usual sheetrock walls to see which ones might stick for a bit, is there a topic more consistently neglected than internet infrastructure?

In a city like ours?

Surely this is the single most frustrating aspect of the ongoing economic development discussion. Ideas for progress toward a "new" economy are never seriously considered. City Hall briefly mentioned working with the city's monopolistic cable provider (itself already obsolete, and an arrangement ripe for a rethink) to offer advance internet infrastructure, but that's as far as it has gone.

Apparently, game changing strategies need not apply.

Rather, we'll continue to accommodate heavy industry's use of the urban street network ... persist in erecting scattershot, disconnected capital intensive projects ... and neglect the city's emerging core of independent small business in favor of subsidizing outside interests.

Why not empower the creativity and possibilities inherent in our own people by studying the feasibility of projects like Helsinki's city-wide Wi-Fi? As it pertains to urban infrastructure, isn't this just as essential it today's economy as streets, sidewalks and sewers?

If we're to survive, how long can we wait to start sniffing outside our self-imposed boxes? Swimming holes are nice, but they're not the harbingers of a new economy, are they?

Helsinki's Wi-Fi Is Super Fast, City-Wide—and Free. It will make the Wi-Fi you pay for at home look sluggish, by Leo Mirani (City Lab)

... Helsinki’s excellent internet infrastructure is the result of some forward thinking on the part of the city, says Micah Gland of Helsinki Business Hub, an organization that promotes the city. When Helsinki’s city government was installing Wi-Fi in its offices and other facilities, it decided to concurrently install open networks for public use. According to Petri Otranen, who runs IT for the city administration, it was built in 2006 before the capital hosted a meeting of Asian and European heads of state.

The result is not necessarily blanket coverage, but wherever there is a building or space controlled by the city, there is Wi-Fi coverage. And it isn’t particularly expensive. Otranen says the cost is included in overall maintenance of the city’s internet and is not broken out separately, though Simo Volanen of Helsinki’s IT department estimates that the outside base stations cost some €40,000 to buy and install ($45,000) and have an annual maintenance cost of about €4,000. This does not include the cost of running the network, which Helsinki does for its own purposes in any case.