Free Wi-Fi Threatened?

jasonmicron writes "The Houston Chronicle is reporting that if certain state officials have their way, cities in the state of Texas will no longer be able to offer free WiFi to their citizens. This could set a dangerous precedent if passed, as broadband providers could start lobbying officials in the other 49 states to ban free WiFi as well. According to the article, Pennsylvania has already fallen victim to such a law but it excluded Philedelphia due to the city's 'existing efforts.'"

Comments

'Free' Wifi?

[Will_Malverson]

Keep in mind, that unless the city employees who administer the network do so for free, Linksys, Cisco, or whoever provides the hardware does so for free, and the upstream provider doesn't charge for bandwidth, this isn't "free" Wi-Fi, but instead subsidized, socialized Wi-Fi.

According to http://www.wifimaps.com/, there is only one wireless network within half a mile of my house, despite the fact that hundreds of people live in that area.

Why should the vast majority of the population subsidize the small percentage of people who are interested in this stuff? It's not like Internet connectivity is *that* expensive.

Besides, do you really want to get your Internet connectivity from your local government?

Texans: Write your legislator!

[tgtanman]

http://www.savemuniwireless.org/ has information on how to contact your Texas legislator and more information on HB 789

Illinois Senate bill 0499

[Fencepost]

Illinois Senate bill 0499 was introduced in late February with an amendment by State Senator Rauschenberger that would do similar things.

I sent letters to my state senator and representative encouraging them to vote against it when and if the opportunity came up, and I fully encourage any other Illinois residents to do the same. If you're not sure who your state senator and representative are, you can find out at Project Vote Smart by entering your 9-digit ZIP code. If your state senator is on the Environment & Energy Committee it's even more important that you get in touch with them.

My letter (adjusted appropriately for the recipient) reads:

Senator,

I just became aware of Senator Rauschenberger's attempt to modify Illinois state law to completely ban municipalities, counties, cities and other political divisions within the state from offering data connection services in Senate bill 499 (specifically, amendment 001).

As one of your constituents I'd like to strongly encourage you to work against this attempt at ensuring that poorly-served areas of the state remain poorly-served.

By banning political entities from offering any kind of data services this modification ensures that in areas where no commercial carrier finds it cost-effective to offer services those services will remain completely unavailable even if the residents of an area are willing to provide them for themselves through local government. Even more, even if the infrastructure already exists because the municipality requires it for other uses, it will not be legally allowed for that infrastructure to be made available. This modification prevents the provision of data services that for the most part don't even directly compete with the broadband carriers that are pushing for these limitations - in particular it means that such options as inexpensive low-speed wireless access will not be available, even though that sort of low-cost connection would provide exactly what many people need as it did with the Minitel service in other countries.

The phrasing of the amendment is also very suspect - what precisely is a "political subdivision of this State," and does that phrasing mean that if this becomes law that all libraries that currently offer wireless Internet access to their patrons must immediately shut it down? Overall Senator Rauschenberger's proposal is an overreaching attempt to limit the options available to Illinois voters in a transparent attempt to cater to large phone and cable companies that aren't even based in Illinois, and I hope I can count on you to oppose it.

Sincerely,