"In some cities, users doing only wireless will be a very attractive option," he said. "Students, for example, can live in a different house every quarter and maintain their account or take it to the nearest microbrewery and use it there," he said.

He noted, though, that in-home use may require extra equipment that the user must purchase to strengthen the signal indoors. Even at that, if this type of coverage replaces standard forms of DSL, "you'll need a ton of [access points]," Belanger said. "It comes down to how dense the infrastructure is."

He said he expects networks run by private organizations, rather than municipalities themselves, will be the most successful. Toronto's network is entirely private, and is being deployed and run by Toronto Hydro Corp. as a commercial venture, Belanger said. And, not coincidentally, in some areas, the Toronto network has as many as 126 access points per square mile, the study found.

Another potentially successful business model is the one used in Madison, Wis., in which a company, CellNet Technology Inc., is developing the network in conjunction with the local electric utility for remote reading of electric meters. The public part of the network is an overlay.

"Madison has an anchor application that justifies the expense," Belanger said. "The [public] service is on top of it and is gravy."