Patience pays off for Gilbert

Gilbert has gotten negative attention lately for spending decisions that have gone badly, so here’s a chance to praise the town for some sound thinking when it didn’t rush into launching a community broadband wireless network.

Instead, Gilbert let Tempe take the initial plunge and waited to see if that city’s Internet partner could deliver on all of the glowing promises that had been made. Tempe’s wireless network has turned out to be a flop so far, as Tribune writer Garin Groff reported Sunday.

Tempe didn’t make any big mistakes either, although it seemed odd that city hall was so eager to jump into an area that experienced and reliable Internet providers have refused to enter. Seeking to raise Tempe’s profile as a tech-savvy community, the City Council allowed a start-up company to install wireless transmitters on street lights and in city rights of way. The business model was to blanket all of Tempe and attract enough wireless customers that the company could make money and expand the network throughout the East Valley.

But Tempe’s only subsidy was to offer locations for the wireless equipment. The private business took most of the risks by designing and building the network and marketing it to potential customers.

The citywide approach hasn’t work out. Weaknesses in the technology meant the company had to buy much more equipment than expected. And few consumers were willing to give up their traditional Internet providers, probably because existing options are more dependable than the citywide network in many places.

Gilbert was prepared to support a similar wireless network if Tempe’s experiment was successful. Instead, Gilbert can learn from that experience and be ready to ask even better questions when the next big dreamer with promises of a fancy new way to deliver the Internet comes along.