Another New Millenium Put-On Job
Anti-muni wireless so called studies coming out full tilt.
So wrote Gordon Cook, wireless expert and telecom analyst, about an email pertaining to a new report by Competitive Enterprise
"I was REALLY NAUSEATED by this. This was spam... they found me and sent their stuff. some folk may or mnay not want to give them a piece of their mind"
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The Problem with Municipal Wireless Networks
Study: Cities Could Be on the Wrong Path with "Wi-Fi" Spending
Washington, D.C., February 3, 2005-Around the nation, several major
cities are considering funding programs to construct Wi-Fi wireless
broadband networks for Internet access. Advocates of these municipal
Wi-Fi projects argue that they will be inexpensive to operate,
foster new business investment and help bring access to underserved
communities, but a new study by the New Millennium Research Council,
co-authored by Competitive Enterprise Institute Technology Counsel
Braden Cox, tells a much different story.
The study, Not In The Public Interest - The Myth of Municipal Wi-Fi
Networks, details that, among other potential difficulties, cities
are focusing solely on the start-up costs of wireless broadband
networks and ignoring the impact on private sector competition.
"Municipalities that enter the wireless broadband market make it
even harder for private firms to compete," says Cox. "Instead,
municipalities should focus on ways to make it easier for private
companies to provide service, such as removing franchise licensing
barriers and making right-of-way access available on terms that are
fair, administratively efficient, nondiscriminatory, and
pro-competitive."
Municipal Wi-Fi networks, though sometimes a collaboration of public
and private efforts, are generally at least partly paid for with
taxpayer funds. Because of that partial (and sometimes complete)
subsidy, municipal networks make it less attractive for
telecommunications companies to invest in large-scale broadband
deployment. In addition, urban planners are often keen to use
technological infrastructure as a way of attracting new business
investment in certain locations. There is little evidence, however,
that millions spent on building Wi-Fi will necessarily attract the
expected investment to targeted areas.
While the intentions of city officials are admirable and Wi-Fi does
have positive benefits, the contributors to Not in the Public
Interest believe city ownership of wireless broadband networks is
not the solution for bridging the "digital divide" or encouraging
ompetition in the broadband market.
Read the full report athttp://www.newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/wifireport2305.pdf
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to
the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more
information about CEI, please visit our website at
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