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Wading in on Municipal WiFi
By Larry Hendrick | June 12, 2005
I have held off on this topic waiting for someone to bring some sense to the discussion, but alas, no such thing is happening. I continue to hear people bemoan the fact that Verizon (Big Business/Big Pockets) and others of like stature, are trying to stop a revolution from happening. Free WiFi provided by the cities to everyone, under the guise of providing access to the underprivileged. Who are they trying to kid?
Now in fairness, I must state that I work for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Texas where the state legislature just finished their session. This was one of the hottest topics on Capital Hill for a couple of months and what they were trying to pass was a bill that would “forbid” cities from building out wireless networks. The so called “techies” were up in arms that the law makers would even look at such a bill and mounted a grand effort to get it buried.
There are so many different elements to this that I don’t even know where to begin and will do so by asking a lot of questions. Here’s what I see…
1) Why should cities be looking at building Internet infrastructure to begin with?
2) Who will actually pay for the initial cost (and cost over runs)?
3) Who will maintain the network once it is installed?
4) How will the maintenance and upkeep be paid for?
5) Who will provide the actual bandwidth and how will this be decided? Who will pay for the bandwidth?
6) What allowances will be made for private enterprise to compete?
7) With providing access for the underprivileged, will they also provide computers?
Who will be “on call” 24/7 for technical support issues that arise?
9) How will this be paid for?
10)Who will monitor the network for illegal or immoral usage?
11)If these are detected, how will they identify the individual users?
12)What are the provisions for the equipment? Servers, routers, switches and wireless access points
13)Will access be limited to “underprivileged” users?
14)How will authentication be done for users?
15)How will they provide for individual users online safety?
16)How will they handle lawsuits for users that are infected by virus, are phished,
17)How will, who will, what will, where will??? All I have are questions and the answers should scare you to death.
Now let me ask you a couple of personal questions…
1) Do you think your federal taxes are too low?
2) Do you think your property taxes are too low?
3) Do you think your sales taxes are too low?
4) Do you think your personal property taxes are too low?
5) Do you think your gasoline taxes and “sin” taxes are too low?
6) Do you think your school taxes are too low?
7) Do you think the local police and fire departments have all the equiement they need?
This could go on forever, but I think you get the point.
This article points out some of the same things.
Technology News: Wireless: Fight Heats Up over Municipal WiFi
“WiFi networks will likely cost more than the cities anticipate, thus straining already tight budgets and negatively impact taxpayers,” the NMRC report argued. “Public funds used for a WiFi network are diverted away from other important areas, such as education, police and fire services, and public works, that are already being cut in many cities today.”
Topics: Technology, WiFi |
April 20th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
[...] June 12, 2005, I wrote an article, Wading in on Municipal WiFi, that asked 24 questions about government involvement in the Internet business. My stance has not changed since then and the questions are still valid and most have answers that will befuddle the advocate. [...]
April 29th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
[...] Here is: Wading in on WiFi I am not alone sites blocked by government [...]