Municipal Wi-Fi value network configurations: impact of motivations, pricing and topology Simon Evenepoel, Sofie Verbrugge, Bart Lannoo, Didier Colle, Mario Pickavet Department of Information Technology, Ghent University - IBBT, Gaston Crommelaan 8 bus 201, 9050 Gent, Belgium Corresponding author: simon.evenepoel@intec.ugent.be Tel: +32 9 331 48 91 Abstract—This paper is motivated by the fact that municipal Wi-Fi is not an unambiguously successful concept and research to the determinants of a successful case is desirable. Municipal Wi-Fi is the idea to let a cloud based on Wi-Fi technology span the municipality. Our research figures as a prestudy. The author believes that for the definition of what is a successful case the principal motivations of the leading actors should be taken into account. We therefore search for a classification of municipal Wi- Fi cases based on their value network configuration and search for the relation with leading motivations, topology and pricing model. Based on a sample of 19 cases we find four types of cases: the integrator model, the public service model, the wholesale model and the community model. For each of these types one prototype case is described from the Benelux. We observe that community models have a more user centric approach, focussing on offering their users universal access and lower access fees, public service models are initiated by the local municipality and focus on the indirect effects incurred from the network and the integrator and wholesale models are centred around commercial parties aiming to make financial profit. I. I NTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Municipal wireless internet access is a concept that grew steadily since the years 2004-2005 [1]–[3]. The idea to let a wireless cloud span (parts of) the municipality is believed to benefit the city and its population in various ways [1], [4]–[7]. Not only do these networks provide both fixed and mobile wireless internet access, but they also generate several indirect benefits. Performant wireless networks could entice business settlement; it is believed that universal internet access can bridge the digital divide; wireless networks can help governments and other local public institutions become more efficient and cost effective; etc... Multiple networking technologies are available for the de- ployment of these municipality wireless networks. On the one hand, there are the ones that are based on the standards of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and which led most notably to Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave access (WiMAX). On the other hand, there are the cellular technologies that are based on specifications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Projects (3GPP and 3GPP2) which led to GPRS, UMTS, CDMA2000, HSPA, LTE, LTE-Advanced etc... The authors believe that Wi-Fi, the focus of this paper, is a viable technology, both economically and technically, but do not intend to put it or any other technology forward as the most appropriate choice, a discussion which is outside the scope of this paper. Wi-Fi clearly has its merits: the different Wi-Fi standards are relatively inexpensive and according to [3] entail projects that cost significantly less than the existing cellular networks [3], they are also widely adopted and already embedded in many end devices: 90% of modern laptops [4] and 92% of modern mobile phones [8]; but Wi-Fi also has its drawbacks: despite having physical data rates of 150-600 Mbps for the 802.11n standard [9], which compare well with e.g. the specifications of IMT-2000 [10] and IMT-Advanced [11] adequate provisioning of Quality of Service (QoS) is lacking. The history of municipal Wi-Fi projects can be captured by a change in their leading motivations [2]. Early initiatives had the local public services in mind; e.g. providing com- munication facilities to the city’s fire department and other emergency response teams. Later on the idea emerged to let these networks provide a low cost alternative for people’s domestic broadband connection. In this way these networks competed directly with the existing Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) operators. Finally, with the large increase in mobile internet usage, following the large scale adoption of smartphones, municipal wireless networks became perceived as an alternative to the aforementioned cellular technologies as well. Notwithstanding the technological and economic feasibility, municipal Wi-Fi is not an unambiguously successful concept. [3], [12], [13] argue that municipal Wi-Fi has failed or is bound to. They point to incumbent competition, regulatory and political issues, financial hurdles and other problems. Despite these issues cases do exist that lead to more optimism with experts, examples thereof are Minneapolis and Oklahoma [14], or engage a large community of users such as Leiden [15] and Berlin [16] (cfr. infra). Thus, instead of dismissing the option entirely, it is desirable to research and identify those factors that contribute to the success and failure of municipal Wi-Fi cases. This paper argues that when defining whether a case has been successful or not one should take into account more than the economic sustainability and profitability that is of essence in a commercial case. The paper thus aims to figure as a prestudy by defining a categorization of cases based on their value network configuration and related to the initiator’s