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Philadelphia Considering Municipal Wi-Fi

Posted by Zonk on from the surfing-the-aether dept.

sebFlyte writes "The row over Muni Wi-Fi continues as cities and other municipal authorities consider building massive Wi-Fi networks to give lots of people low-cost wireless net access. CNET is running an article written by the CIO for the city of Philadelphia, explaining why she thinks it's time to break the telcos de-facto monopoly and for public agencies to start offering public services." We have previous covered Taipei's efforts along these lines to create a for-pay service

5 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Wish my town... by robslimo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    would do something like that.

    Starting the late 90's they were being very public about pushing to the front of being "wired"... even got a Yahoo! "Most wired city" award for 2000. That was all on an effort to get the city ringed with fiber. I guess once they got their high-speed net to all the city buildings and schools, their interest pretty much fizzled, leaving the city-zens still not quite on of the game... I still can't get DSL.

    1. Re:Wish my town... by Ytsejam-03 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I guess once they got their high-speed net to all the city buildings and schools, their interest pretty much fizzled, leaving the city-zens still not quite on of the game... I still can't get DSL.
      Either that, or the cable/telco lobby quitely put a stop to all of the fiber talk. Where I live that same lobby ran this company out of business after they managed to run fiber to two local communities, Springville and Spanish Fork. The cities adopted the networks after the company went belly-up, and residents of those communities have had cheap, fast internet connections for the past five years.

      This is Qwest's worst nightmere. Now thanks to this project Qwest can kiss their monopoly goodbye. Qwest did their best to kill it.
  2. Philly Wifi?! by FyreFiend · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While I like the idea in general I don't think Philly should doing this. The city has been so broke these last few years that they're closing firehouses and talking of cutting the police force. Once the city gets its budget in order then they might want to look into this. Not before.

    --
    - Apple Computer......proudly going out of business for over twenty years.
  3. Not to knock the idea, but... by SparksMcGee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems that the comparatively extravagant cost of free WiFi versus the number of people who can't even even afford a computer in Philadelphia puts into question why this should be a primary initiative. I agree with the goals in principle but wouldn't those tax dollars do a lot towards helping city schooling? Just a thought.

  4. Re:Not allowed? by NardofDoom · · Score: 3, Interesting
    They have till 2005 or 2006 to get it up. Any network done before then isn't subject to the law that my asshat representative supported.

    As for the law: There's nothing stopping a community organization from building one. I think the public broadcasting model would work for a mesh network: Like it? Donate! Get some companies to sponsor and we're cool. No muss, no fuss, no multi-million-dollar executive salaries or golden parachutes.

    The law's ass-backwards anyway. I don't see anything wrong with local government competing with business. Hell, it'll make them get their shit together and offer something better than 3Mbps down/784kbps up with a dynamic IP.

    I'm jealous of Swedes.

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