- The Smart Town initiative was begun by the vendor Calix
- It’s a way to provide Wi-Fi roaming throughout small communities
- By offering a mobile value-add, small broadband providers can better compete against the likes of Starlink
You’ve probably heard of smart cities, where a lot of public infrastructure, such as traffic lights, is connected to the internet. But have you heard of smart towns?
A few small broadband providers have banded together in a Smart Town Alliance to bring a form of community Wi-Fi to their rural communities, and they’re hoping to create a trend where many small broadband providers join their initiative.
The members of the Smart Town Alliance give their broadband customers a way to access the internet via their mobile devices, outside of their homes. And if these subscribers happen to visit the footprint of other Smart Town Alliance members, the community Wi-Fi will work there, as well.
The Smart Town Alliance was begun in the fall of 2024 by the vendor Calix to help small broadband providers offer community Wi-Fi as a value-add for their customers.
Currently, there are a handful of service providers participating in the Smart Town Alliance, including SC Telecom in Kansas; Jade Communications in Colorado; French Broad EMC in North Carolina; and Tombigbee Fiber in Mississippi.
How smart town works
The broadband providers can supplement their existing base of residential systems, typically Calix’s GigaSpire BLAST systems, by strategically adding outdoor access points in public gathering spots. The Calix GigaPro series is designed for outdoor use and able to extend Wi-Fi over longer distances, helping providers to establish community-wide Wi-Fi coverage.
Carla Shearer, CEO and general manager of SCTelecom, said her company leverages its all-fiber broadband network to supply the smart town benefits to its 4,000 subscribers. “Smart town for our subscribers gives mobility to those investments we’ve made,” she said.
Subscribers must enroll their mobile devices (phones and tablets) via the Passpoint security technology created by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Once a user accesses the Wi-Fi network offered at a location, the Passpoint-enabled client device will automatically connect at other Smart Town Alliance locations.
Shearer said the Smart Town service allows customers to use their Wi-Fi for secure mobile roaming throughout their communities. It’s also been great for connectivity at town festivals. Now, vendors can use payment apps such as Square, where previously they could only take cash payments at events because there was no internet.
Fierce Network also spoke with Jordan Wehe, Co-CEO and marketing director at Jade Communications, a small broadband provider in southern Colorado. For Jade customers, the offer of mobility throughout their 35 communities is a God-send because there is no cellular service in some of these remote mountain towns.
Jade’s network is a mix of fiber and fixed wireless services. But Wehe said the Smart Town initiative isn’t dependent on fiber broadband. He said the ability to use mobile devices throughout Jade communities “allows for travel and safety, and it’s an economic driver.” It also helps to compete against satellite broadband from the likes of Starlink. “We can show more value to our customers,” said Wehe.
In addition to the convenience of mobile broadband for subscribers, both SCTelecom and Jade Communications have certified devices for the first responders in their communities, whether or not they are broadband customers.
"In addition to community Wi-Fi, we have made commitments to first responders whether or not they're customers on their work devices. We've already heard stories of first responders being dispatched to remote homes, where traditionally they were not able to communicate with the hospital. Now, because of smart town, they can,” said Wehe.
Similar to Comcast and Charter
In some ways the Smart Town initiative is similar to the massively deploy Wi-Fi hotspots of Comcast and Charter, where their subscribers can access Wi-Fi in many locations outside their own homes. And since Comcast and Charter have begun offering mobile services, they’ve joined together to allows their mobile subs to use both Comcast and Charter Wi-Fi hotspots.
But Wehe noted that Comcast and Charter are focused on urban markets, and that’s where there is plenty of cellular service. “They’ve left rural America behind,” he said.