[IP] Think Tank Trashes Municipal-Run Wireless
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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:25:09 -0800
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Think Tank Trashes Municipal-Run Wireless
Think Tank Trashes Municipal-Run Wireless
February 3, 2005
<http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3468381>
A report out today from the Washington D.C.-based New Millenium
Research Council (NMRC), called "Not in the Public Interest?The Myth of
Municipal W-Fi Networks," calls into question the necessity, the
anti-competitiveness, and the overall viability of towns, cities, or
counties installing wireless broadband and treating it like a public
utility.
However, Wi-Fi-supporting pundits point out potential issues with not
only the arguments made in the report but also the objectivity of the
authors, who the pundits brand as "sock puppets of industry."
The NRMC was created in 1999 to "develop workable, real-world
solutions to the issues and challenges confronting policy makers,
primarily in the fields of telecommunications and technology." The
group is an "independent project" of Issue Dynamics, Inc. (IDI).
In a phone briefing held today with journalists, the authors of
various sections of the report gave a summary of their analysis, all of
which uniformly question the need for any kind of government-run and
funded wireless broadband system. Arguments against include:
Anti-competitiveness: Municipal wireless networks will be funded by
taxpayers. "When a private sector company fails, it must respond. But
government [programs] can be propped up with additional tax dollars,"
according to Technology Counsel Braden Cox, counsel for the Competitive
Enterprise Institute.
Past failures: "Nearly every municipal network of the last decade has
failed badly," says David P. McClure, president and CEO of U.S.
Internet Industry Association. When asked directly what municipal
networks had failed, speakers mentioned Marietta, Georgia, a utility
district in Washington state, and others?though not all are necessarily
wireless.
Not addressing the "Digital Divide:" McClure's section of the report
states that the phrase is a catchall, and can't be limited just to a
lack of free broadband. He also says "econometric data shows no
specific link between broadband availability and economic development."
And, he says, it won't increase tourism either, since it won't offer
more than the Wi-Fi already available in public access hotspots run by
private companies.
[snip]
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