We are all wondering how Minneapolis’s Wi-Fi network is doing. Are people using it? What’s the user experience?
Julio Ojeda-Zapata used US Internet’s service in various locations with a MacBook Air and an iPod Touch, and gives it good marks. He says: I was in! On my laptop, the wireless network worked dependably. Over lunch at a Thai restaurant on Washington Avenue, I was able to fire off e-mails to my editors, “tweet” on the Twitter microblogging service and make Internet-based voice calls via the Skype service.
A bit later, while sipping something dark and potent at a coffee shop, I carried on instant-messaging exchanges with a few folks, checked e-mail on Google Gmail and (yes, I admit it) hopped back on Twitter. US Internet says the network will work best with laptops that use a plug-in card and attached antenna for optimal communication with its Wi-Fi radios installed all over town. My card- and antenna-less Apple MacBook Air did fine, though I never hit more than about half the maximum advertised speed of 1 megabit per second for my service level. It helps to be sitting by a window when on a laptop indoors.
Read the full article here [1].
What needs to be improved
(1) Speed: according to Julio Ojeda-Zapata, he never got more than 500 Kbps (half the advertised speed of 1 Mbps). If US Internet is competing with wireline ISPs (cable and DSL), it needs to increase those speeds to more than 1 Mbps. On the other hand, if they are targeting nomadic users — business people and tourists, or locals running around with iPhones and the iPod Touch — 1 Mbps would be fine (for now) but . . .
(2) They need to make sure small devices like the iPod Touch and iPhone can access the network.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata complained that he had trouble getting his iPod Touch connected to the network. US Internet, the provider, says such devices might have some problems logging in.
With more people using the iPhone and the iPod Touch, walking around looking up Google maps and information online, using email and downloading files, it’s critical for service providers to optimize the network so that nomadic users with small devices can easily log on. That’s where these citywide wireless networks are most useful and ultimately, that is what I think they are supposed to be built for. So not optimizing them for small devices is a BIG mistake.