Free Public Wi-Fi in Cities: Balancing Advantages and Risks

Abstract

Should Cities offer free public Wi-Fi? As a result of increasing technological advancements, internet connection has become one of the most essential needs of several city dwellers. Notably, most users feel the need to have an all-time internet connection for communication and research on various economic issues. However, the cost of internet connection has become a nightmare for most city dwellers who feel the commercial internet providers charge very high rates for their services. Consequently, various service providers such as health care centers also need the connections (Dingli & Seychell, 2014). This paper, therefore, seeks to analyze some of the reasons that would support the provision of free internet in the cities and the reasons against the same. There is a coherent for many cities to attract various investors into the business arena. Moreover, introduction of free and faster Wi-Fi network would make communication efficient and faster among various business persons. Admittedly, the use of free Wi-Fi would increase the business activities in the cities hence raising the revenues for the governments. As a matter of fact, effective and efficient Wi-Fi networks would help in ensuring that the governments keep track of all the users since the hotspot would indicate the IP addresses of all the users (Wei, 2008). Another importance of installing free Wi-Fi in the cities is the creation of an opportunity to collect the data of the city’s population. Subsequently, this would help in keeping track of the number of people in the cities. However, there are negative aspects that have to be considered when coming up with a free Wi-Fi such as the cost and effects on the safety of the users (Cao et al, 2008). In as much as the Wi-Fi is important, it will lead to problems such as road accidents. Many...