In all of the announcements, discussions and general excitement surrounding municipal wireless, you hear government officials and people in the industry talk about local businesses in one of two ways. Either businesses are to be the source of ad revenues that finance all or most of the network, or businesses are going to experience a new economic renaissance thanks to these initiatives.

But what do businesses have to say about these networks? Are they really ready to pour millions of dollars into muni networks? The better question might be, do we know what applications will convince companies to subscribe, and is the network we're building capable of delivering these apps?

In this month's Snapshot, you'll see what business managers and chambers of commerce have to say on these subjects

Snapshot Participants

This month's Snapshot includes a national survey of 176 business owners and managers, plus in-depth interviews with executives and members of chambers of commerce in six cities. Cities represented are:

What you'll find out from those interviewed is:

Ad-driven networks
* 34% of survey respondents replied that buying banner ads on a municipal network does not conform to how they do their marketing, meaning that regardless of the network's success drawing subscribers, this isn't a marketing vehicle that meets their needs;

* Another 23% of respondents would have no interest in buying ads and 33% "maybe" would consider buying ads." Only 7% said they "would try it" and 3% said the network "would need more subscribers."

* When asked what's the most they would spend per month on ads if they were interested, 45% of respondents indicated less than $100/month, 9% might spend $100 - $200, but 11% replied it depends on the actual percentage of residents subscribing and 28% replied "it's a question of who, not how many."

* To the question of whether or not their company would post information on portal on the network designed specifically to promote businesses such as theirs, 44% replied no, 35% "yes, if it's free" and 18% said "probably yes." Important applications

* Presented with seven categories of mobile workforce applications, survey respondents showed the greatest interest in wireless access to e-mail (26% somewhat interested, 37% highly interested), voice over IP - Internet phone calls (23% somewhat interested, 33% highly interested) and wireless access to software apps run on office LANs (18% somewhat interested, 35% highly interested)

* When it comes to using municipal networks for asset management and maintenance, the main draws were video surveillance (20% somewhat interested, 28% highly interested), wireless asset tracking for theft prevention (20% somewhat interested, 25% highly interested) and monitoring machines' operations for efficiency, emergencies, etc. (23% somewhat interested, 25% highly interested)

Factors influencing subscriptions
* Security is "very important" to 73%, price is one of the leading factors for 72% and reliability of the service provider is very important to 68%. Roaming capabilities and the number of subscribers to the network elicit varying levels of interest.

* Speed is another important factor in the decision to subscribe. 512 kbps is the minimum required (receiving and sending) by 34% of respondents, but 28% require at least a megabyte per second and a significant 23% require at least 2 megs per second.

Changing customer relationships
* When asked how they would like to see the network used to facilitate relationships with customers, 47% had "some interest" or were "very interested" in subscribers using the network to make reservations with the respondents' businesses. 43% would like to be able to push promotions and content to subscribers, and 42% would like to have subscribers process orders with the respondents' businesses.

In the final analysis, you need to :

1. understand that sustainability of the ad model is shaky as key financial source, doubtful as sole source;
2. ask many probing questions of your business community and potential vendors to test the viability of the ad-driven model;
3. consider ads as just part of the impact businesses can have on direct financial involvement;
4. better understand how to attract businesses as subscribers to the network;
5. put more time into understanding businesses mobile workforce and asset management needs; and
6. build a better network to meet those needs.

Get the full Snapshot report.