Broadband Wireless Card Internet Access: Founded in 2002 by Jasbir Singh, Pronto Networks helps cities bring broadband wireless access to their residents by enabling network operators to deploy and manage large, public hotspot networks. Sun recently spoke with Singh about municipal wireless projects and the role of Sun technology in those projects.

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Founded in 2002 by Jasbir Singh, Pronto Networks helps cities bring broadband wireless access to their residents by enabling network operators to deploy and manage large, public hotspot networks. Sun recently spoke with Singh about municipal wireless projects and the role of Sun technology in those projects.

Q: Why are municipalities providing wireless access? Why not leave it to private providers?

Singh: There are plenty of for-profit companies that do a great job of serving their markets. But close to 2000 cities in the United States also operate their own utilities, and if the city can run water or power more cost-effectively, it makes sense they can provide wireless access as well. Many cities take this step because they have no other choice - they only have dial-up, or some very expensive form of broadband.

Some of the earliest adopters were cities that had no prior connectivity. For example, Chaska, Minnesota, is a city with about 15,000 homes, and no private providers were offering service in the area. Now that the city offers service, broadband penetration in Chaska is close to 40 percent. Typically 15 percent market share is considered successful - anything more than that is wonderful, and 40 percent is almost unheard of.

Other cities, like Corpus Christi, Texas, start these projects because they want to automate certain tasks using wireless technology. Corpus Christi already ran its own utilities, and city officials wanted to automate information collection from water meters, energy meters, and parking meters. They realized that a wireless mesh could both meet this need and enable wireless access for residents.