Municipal Wi-Fi Battle Moves to Texas

[mike_c]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/19/0126204&from=rss

Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 19, @04:24AM
from the because-texans-don't-need-wireless-networking- dept.
Cryofan writes "The fight in Texas is heating up over municipal wireless. Texas House Bill 789, under consideration in Texas, would impose one of the most extreme bans on municipal involvement in any form of communications--free or otherwise (the bill could ban free library access)."

More information from http://wifinetnews.com/archives/004870.html:

The fight in Texas, reported yesterday, is heating up over municipal wireless: The bill under consideration in Texas would impose one of the most extreme bans on municipal involvement in any form of communications—free or otherwise—of any state bill I’m aware of. But the fight is joined. The EFF (that’s EFF-Austin not the national organization) will help fight the bill, according to Esme Vos of Muniwireless.org. Esme also points to an anti-anti-municipal wireless Web site, Savemuniwireless.org set up by Chip Rosenthal. Esme notes and a commenter on Rosenthal site queries that this bill would ban free library access among other broad statements.

These attempts to legislatively ban free or low-cost municpal WiFi communications networks are more evidence that the proper role of government in America is the protection of corporate profits rather than providing for the welfare of it's citizens. It is hard to imagine how anyone loses-- other than ISP providers that charge exorbitant rates for services-- when municipalities provide low-cost services. Even then, it would seem that an ideal compromise would be for municipalities to provide basic access for free or at low cost, and perhaps with bandwidth restrictions to keep it affordable, and for communications companies to augment that with value-added service offering higher bandwidth and etc. There's no denying however that MANY WiFi network users have little need for anything other than basic access and woild be entirely happy with cost effective municipal service.

[Igel]

1. The wi-fi portion is fairly trivial in the bill as a whole. As one of

the first posters in your link points out, there are a whopping 4 references to wireless in the bill, which is at least partially an amendment to an existing bill; he doesn't add that two of the instances struck through.

I'm unsure that I want my municipal government in bed with a ISP, but I also haven't thought it through in any coherent way.

On the other hand, I really have to wonder what prompted this bill. I can't believe people just sit in Austin scheming to eviscerate the Texan public. I'm in Houston, TX, but seem to know what's going on in Quetta, Qalqilya, Ekaterinburg, or Jiddah more than what's happening in my own back yard. It could be an overreaction to something that's going on (maybe driven by some lobbyist or contributor), some intern's attepmt to make his boss happy, or a subversive attempt to make sure the blogging population is primarily drawn from the top half of the SES continuum. Or none of the above.

[VegasWolf]

2. Hell, how many Texans can operate a computer anyway, besides

the intelligent ones on this board :).

[readmoreoften]

4. Um, Austin has one of the best wireless set ups in the country

Zilker Park is apparently wired for free internet access. Oh, also, UT Austin has the 8th biggest library in the nation and is unquestionably blue.

[readmoreoften]

5. and also extremely stoned n/t

[Thaddeus]

3. There's one basic premise:

Corporate behemoths like Comcast and Verizon do not want competition from any wireless provider that can deliver to people at a fraction of the cost and more efficiently than what they can offer. Period.

Consequently, they will use any rhetoric at their disposal that discredits muni wireless initiatives. Anti-government rhetoric draws from a time-honored tradition that has mislead the American public on important policy issues innumerable times over the past 100 years. Commerical interests said similar things about electric utilities around the turn of the century. They will do or say anything to maintain their monopoly privileges.