Switchboard in the Sky

SWITCHBOARD IN THE SKY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Gnatek]
Local governments across the country are getting into the wireless Internet business. Communities left behind by the high-technology revolution of the last two decades view municipal networks as an affordable means of renewing their economic competitiveness and a way to bridge the digital divide between technology haves and have-nots. Big cities and their suburbs see potential in municipal Wi-Fi, too. The new programs have put local governments into the telecommunications arena, where they sometimes work with conventional service providers and sometimes compete with them. Many telecommunications providers are resisting such community networks, particularly when they overlap with the carriers' own service territories. Arguing that they are better suited to the task than their municipal rivals, telecommunications companies are bidding to manage civic networks. At the same time, industry-friendly legislative proposals at the state and federal levels threaten to limit municipal control. Municipal wireless networks are cheaper to build than cable or fiber- optic networks and are easier to deploy. According to one study by muniwireless.com, an industry Weblog, more than 120 such networks are up and running around the country, including some that allow public access and others that are exclusively for city services. Nearly 60 other cities and towns have requested proposals from vendors or taken steps toward creating networks. Rollouts of municipal networks in major metropolitan regions like San Francisco and Philadelphia have attracted attention, but development of community wireless networks holds even greater promise for out-of-the-way and poorer areas. For these smaller cities and towns, the networks are a tool for more efficient municipal operations and a way to provide inexpensive Internet access to residents who could not afford it. Established telecommunications companies, meanwhile, argue that they are better equipped than local governments to provide the infrastructure for city wireless networks.
http://nytimes.com/2006/05/03/technology/techspecial3/03utility.html
(requires registration)