Olympia nixes free Wi-Fi idea

The Olympia City Council has abandoned an idea to provide wireless Internet throughout downtown after a citizens work group's report showed it would be too expensive.

"The $20,000 the city has set aside for the project will not build a system," the group's report said. The Wi-Fi money will be spent elsewhere in next year's budget.

"They gave us a report and, in essence, a lot more questions came up than were answered," said Councilman Joe Hyer, who pushed the Wi-Fi idea along with Councilman TJ Johnson. "If we really wanted to do Wi-Fi right, we need hundreds of thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands of dollars."

A Wi-Fi system requires expensive hardware to broadcast the Wi-Fi signal and involves a contract with an Internet provider, not to mention system maintenance, group member Deborah Vinsel said.

Vinsel, executive director of Thurston Community Television, said the group looked at other communities that have done it, the equipment it needs and how it could be funded.

She said the city didn't want to own the utility; officials wanted to work with another provider. But it became unclear how to fund it because the city wanted to offer at least some level of service for free.

The more the group studied, the more complicated it got.

"We've peeled back a half a dozen layers or a dozen layers of the onion and the onion has gotten bigger," she said.

Olympia joins several cities that have shelved Wi-Fi projects. USA Today reported in September that Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and other cities have suspended their proposed networks because they're too complicated or expensive.

Other cities already have it — such as downtown Spokane and certain areas of Seattle.

Hyer said that wireless service is already common in downtown Olympia because some businesses provide it for free. He said in 10 spots he tried downtown, seven had free service.