RCR Wireless News' Kristen Beckman says a new report from research firm Strategy Analytics entitled Municipal Broadband: How Real a Threat to Incumbents? states that incumbent operators shouldn't be concerned about growing competition from Wi-Fi deployments in cities nationwide.

"The firm predicts public broadband networks planned by major cities and smaller municipalities will reach only 6 million U.S. homes, or about 5 percent of all households, in the next five years, and incumbent telecom and cable operators will continue to attract the vast majority of customers as prices for commercial broadband services continue to decline," Beckham writes.

"We expect a lot of consumers will supplement their cable or DSL service with municipal Wi-Fi, however they are not going to rely on it exclusively," says analyst James Penhune. "Philadelphia and other large cities have recently announced plans to offer inexpensive Wi-Fi service, which may be better than dial-up Internet access, but is slow compared to the DSL service that is only slightly more expensive and usually offers better quality."

More here from Wi-Fi Planet's Eric Griffith.