Don't Let Fear Kill Muni Wi-Fi

[Commentary] Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the mayor there expects a legal challenge from Internet service providers like SBC and Comcast, who presumably prefer every San Franciscan to pay a monthly access fee. Obviously, ISPs fear competition from a free service. But people pay for bottled water, music downloads, open-source operating systems and printed versions of free blogs. Companies can still make money in cities with public Wi-Fi by selling even faster service or bundling connectivity with subscriptions, software or support. Without legislation, ISPs have no legal basis for stopping community Wi-Fi. But legislation is a distinct possibility. The city of Philadelphia, for example, almost had to scrap its Wi-Fi plan when the state governor threatened to sign a bill barring cities from providing Internet service for a fee.
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: Jennifer Granick, Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society]
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,69175,00.html