Clouds on the Broadbad Horizon

The New York Times this weekend revisited the status of municipal WiFi efforts around the USA, and at the moment, most of that status falls into the category of ‘not good.’ This morning there is a story in CrunchGear about an Australian WiMAX operator who says the ‘technology is worthless’ and degrades horribly if you are out of line-of-sight range.

Both articles point to the difficulties that anyone can imagine in trying to make broadband access to the Internet work on a large scale. Coming in the wake of this past January’s CES, where the news was all about WiMAX, it once again raises many of the issues (cost, effectiveness, width of pipe), that I keep pondering about as we keep hoping and praying for better solutions for more connectivity in more places.

This story is certainly far from over and I’m sure there are many chapters yet to be written. But at the moment, with the blush and rush of the intitial promises a bit tarnished by present day reality, it appears things are in a period of the doldrums.