[RTC List] Where's my free Wi-Fi?

[Sean McLaughlin]

For the Internet and broadband communications infrastructure - do we 
want privateers or public utilities?
The same basic arguments for free public Wi-Fi also apply to Broadband 
infrastructure generally.

Perhaps the smart folks of the Redwood Coast can invent a new and better 
solution - something akin to a public/private co-op?

If so, we'll need to study the leading thinkers - like Tim Wu 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wu & http://www.timwu.org/)

*WHERE'S MY FREE WI-FI? *

[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] The basic idea of offering Internet access as a public 
service is sound. The problem is that cities haven't thought of the 
Internet as a form of public infrastructure that -- like subway lines, 
sewers, or roads -- must be paid for. Instead, cities have labored under 
the illusion that, somehow, everything could be built easily and for 
free by private parties. That illusion has run straight into the ancient 
economics of infrastructure and natural monopoly. The bottom line: City 
dwellers won't be able to get high-quality wireless Internet access for 
free. If they want it, collectively, they'll have to pay for it. By 
2005, it became clear that major cities didn't really want to build out 
Wi-Fi networks as public works projects. Instead, places like 
Philadelphia and San Francisco announced "private/public" partnerships. 
That meant giving a private company the right to build a wireless 
network and try to make money off of it. Often, this simply meant giving 
a company like Earthlink the rights to install Wi-Fi devices on street 
lamps and charge citizens for access. The cities then washed their hands 
of the issue of success or failure. The result, as this summer has made 
clear, has been telecom's Bay of Pigs---a project the government wanted 
to happen but left to underqualified private parties to deliver. Firms 
like Earthlink promised too much, and the cities have stood by and 
watched as the firms trying to build Wi-Fi systems have twisted and died 
on the beachhead. The lesson here is an old one about the function of 
government. When it comes to communications, the United States relies on 
a privateer system: We depend on private companies to perform public 
callings. That works up to a point, but private industry will build only 
so much. Real public infrastructure costs real public money. We already 
know that, in the real world, if you're not willing to invest in 
infrastructure, you get what we have: crumbling airports, collapsing 
bridges, and broken levees. Why did we think that the wireless Internet 
would be any different?
http://www.slate.com/id/2174858/fr/rss/


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