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Oakland County to go Wireless
y00nix writes "Oakland County, MI has plans to roll out a wireless Internet access program dubbed "Wireless Oakland" covering all 910 square miles inside the county. County Executive L. Brooks Patterson unveiled the plans at last night's State of the County address. Additional press coverage via the Oakland Press, and the The Detroit News." Similar in concept to Philadelphia's plans covered yesterday.
Another place getting WiFi. Now are we going to see this on ./ as news every time some city/municipality or whatever gets WiFi? It's getting old really quick.
I would be angry if my local government did something like this. Wireless networks are something private companies could provide, instead of using government tax dollars that could be better used for schools, roads, and real public projects that would serve the public.
Wireless Internet is something only a small segment of the population would take advantage of, and most should be able to afford it on their own.
I love how slashdot cheers big government projects that intrude further in our lives, yet hate big government at the same time. You can't have it both ways.
Will the sales tax rise because of this?
This is great for many reasons:
1. When the government runs the ISPs, it means that law enforcement can monitor what you browse online. No need for search warrants anymore!
2. It is not like wireless technology changes or evolves, so I am sure a wireless purchase now will be good for the next 40 years.
3. Poor people need low-cost wireless access. After all, brand new laptops configured for wireless access are cheap, but that $8 a month fee for internet access is just WAY too expensive.
4. There are way too many choices. Who actually wants to CHOOSE there ISP, when the government can make all the choices for them. After all, Oakland county does such a great job fixing the roads, lowering crime, and protecting the enviornment... how could they NOT do a better job.
5. The government can make sure that dangerous information is not accessible. We can make sure that p2p music file sharing is not possible, and since we already require certain websites not be available in public schools and libraries, obviously the ban will also apply to public wireless.
last time I had government run Cable TV it sucked and was expensive.
Also the Govt made it illegal for a private company to come in and compete.
So tell me again why this is good?
Large networks like this are a good idea and only the government has the force to build such a network. Fist off it creates competition for things like GPRS, second of all information is important and should be available to everyone.
By the way wireless is cheap, you can get a computer adequate for surfing the web for almost free and a wireless card is like 8 US dollars now, so yes the monthly internet fee is a lot of money to some people, because high speed internet is like $50, dial up is $15 and you need a telephone line. Guess what many people use cell phones rather than a landline so that adds to the cost. I know some very poor people who have old pcs but do not have internet because of what it costs.
Also this is not intended to push ISP's out of business, but rather offer ubiquitous access and they will have a real hard time monitoring online activity without a log on procedure. So if it is truly open that is not a problem.
As a former resident of Oakland County myself, I don't think that much of the residents will have too difficult of a time affording Comcasts inflated prices. I think that this is a good idea, however it should be done in a county (i.e. Wayne or Macomb) where free or very cheap high speed internet can reduce the "digial divide" (sorry for the of the use of the bad buzz word).
The government is involved in all infastructure projects. They may not pay your electric, phone, or gas bill, but some level of government has decided which companies to allow to build lines into your home.
Let's say skype runs on my PDA and my smartphone. And wireless is provided for free country-wide.
=> wireless telephony has just become free.
i would be surprised if the cell operators wouldn't put up a massive lobbying effort against this. in the end, the goverment takes over their business and gives it away for free.
not that i or anyone else ever having to deal with cingular customer service would mind.