Motorola (Quote) announced this week that its MotoMesh products are powering the new mesh network in the city of Macon, Georgia.

The MotoMesh products feature multiple radios, and in this case provide 2.4GHz 802.11b/g access for residents and city employees, plus a 4.9GHz network for public safety employees -- that frequency is reserved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for first responders only. The 4.9GHz network will handle voice, data and video feeds. Some cameras in areas with high crime have been set up temporarily to serve in demonstrations only -- they don't plan any full-time surveillance, unlike in areas of Dallas and Los Angeles, to name just two.

City officials say the network is "an effort by the city to bridge the digital divide."

Other Motorola tools in the mix include its Canopy system for long-distance, point-to-multipoint wireless backhaul, and Motorola AirMobile software for first responders, used to send out everything from work orders to "BOLOs" (Be On the LookOut).

Right now, the public access is limited to 40 downtown hotspots near areas like Cherry Street Plaza, Central City Park and Tattnall Square, according to the Macon Telegraph. They plan to expand it citywide eventually. Just to get to this point cost $1.5 million, which they got from a US Department of Justice grant.

Macon is the fourth-largest city in Georgia, with a population of 97,000 in the city and 379,000 in the entire metropolitan area.

This announcement comes at the same time as a backlash is happening against municipal Wi-Fi, which hearkens back to the early days of muni-Fi when telcos railed against cities taking part in network building. In fact, a new 90-page report from the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) in San Francisco looks at 52 cities with city-run telecommunications networks (not all of them wireless, and some go back 20 years). They distinguish between the "socialist model" of cities owning it all and providing it for free or as a utility, and a the "public-private partnerships" we've come to see more recently. PRI's recommendations include prohibition of municipal telecom networks if the private sector can do it, and a suggestion that municipalities should work with private providers -- sentiments that echo issues faced by providers like MetroFi (now requiring municipalities to be anchor tenants) and even EarthLink, which is taking a closer look at the return it thinks it can get by shelling out big bucks for setting up muni-Fi networks.