Jason, First let me say that cities like Philly were in so early that the equipment was not up to the task. Philly got sold a bill of goods. I continue to see this even today, in other markets.

There are few vendors out there who can actually pull city wirless off. We are currently watching a South Texas city installing a wireless network specifically for cameras. It has no chance of working as the throughput of each node is a quarter of what is required for a single camera! Sad, but true.

You cannot expect city commissioners to be able to select equipment reliably, much less hire the right IT professionals to make those decisions. Not their fault.

Equipment vendors must sell product, whether working or not. They will make any claim necessary, hoping to correct it in the next software update. Unfortunately, cities are gullible and get taken. A really good outside consultant could eliviate these multi-million dollar disasters.

When in a city built correctly, all your apps work splendidly. Your IPhone latches on to a fat pipe and brings down that movie in a snap; none the worse on your battery life.

The US is lagging way behind. It will emerge. We have been using WiMax/WiFi hybrids for two or three years, with huge success. Viability is not an issue. The right equipment is...