Should Municipalities Get in the Wi-Fi Business?

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Andrew Lippman  <lip () media mit edu>
Sent: 20/4/'05,  7:32

Most of the hackers who comment on municipal broadband are used to 
delving into the lower level code and hardware of anything that comes 
their way to tweak it and get  it to work.  To us, 802.11 is a license 
to explore.  The beneficial result of this is turnkey Wifi, and a full 
catalogue of parts from which to choose.  The bottom line is that 
anyone can be a broadband provider -- no IT department required.  Same 
as not hiring a filmmaker for your daughter's Bat-Mitzvah.  Jump in, 
the waters fine.

A key reason why a city ought to think about this:  the main difference 
between licensed and unlicensed radio is that for the former, the 
licenseholder is in the driver's seat.  He has paid for the right to 
exclude others, and he is often supported by laws that favor letting 
him build a system.

For unlicensed, the property owner is in charge.  The radio works 
wherever you own the real estate on which to site your antennae.  And 
the FCC is loathe to interfere with property rights.  Recent exceptions 
expand the resident's rights (you can put Wifi in you apartment, the 
landlord cannot prevent it.)

This is important for a city.  Instead of leasing or selling the 
property, it can use its own.  The alternative is having your city 
carve out places for private parties to do it.  Would you lease the 
Grand Canyon to Verizon?  Or would you rather the Park Service keep it 
and plant a few radios?  Do you want your streets given away? Why not 
hold in common what we hold as a common good?

As far as the comparisons with the motor vehicle department go, they 
are specious and not based in fact.  Sure, it was once true that 
bureaucracies were terribly run and obstreperous.  But Gore fixed that. 
  The government really is re-engineered and far more responsive.  There 
are many reasons, including outsourcing some functions, and that is not 
the point of this note.  However, it is important to distinguish 
between pithy myth and reality.  A city can run a network and has good 
reasons to consider it.

Andy Lippman


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