Running List of Barriers to Municipal Competition

batageek writes "In keeping with recent stories on Municipal Broadband, Jim Baller (Muni Telco lawyer/god)has kept a running tab of all the Bell/Cable company-introduced anti-municipal broadband legislation around the country."

It's so cheap that city governments aren't needed

[Anonymous Coward]

If setting up a wireless network is so cheap and easy, then why aren't more groups like the ones in Portland and Austin simply doing it ?

If a club or co-op formed to subsidize hotspots and coverage, and you could get the password to use them if you were a member, I'd pay. They should have a discount available to anyone who runs a node from their home and covers enough of their block.

Re:It's so cheap that city governments aren't need

[dumllama]

I assume this is what you're talking about (in Portland)...

http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News &file=article&sid=3795 [dailywireless.org]

Instead of using taxpayer's money, backers hope to find a telecommunications company willing to build the network in exchange for access to rooftops of city-owned buildings.

Which proposals are bad?

[dumllama]

I read the first one "Colorado" and it seems reasonable? If you bother to read them all, please tell me which ones are the worst.

thanks

One common requirement

[portwojc]

A bunch of them have the requirement to make sure that commercial providers aren't intending on launching service. Which is of course a good thing as businesses shouldn't have to compete with the governemt. Of course...

Companies that are regulated by the state shouldn't be permitted to run businesses that aren't regulated by the state.

It's hard to ignore the fact that a Bell run ISP has a huge advantage over a non-bell run one.
Of course public utlity commisions seem to ignore that and can't make the connection.

Want to see it in action call your local ISP and ask them how much for a T1. Then call the Bell ISP and ask them. Huge price difference. It's not cause the local ISP is greedy it's cause to the Bell the Internet is a commodity to keep customers and it's worth the loss. Plus to a Bell what is one more strand of wire?

That Cheap ? ...

[WoodieR]

then why isn't Toronto, Vancouver etc or other cities in Canada, and the US doing the roll-out thingey ?

A potential solution

[VolciMaster]

I'm all for private business providing any service it can. And any private sector business, no matter how crappy, should not be competed against by the government.

That said, I am also all for bringing technology to people who "couldn't otherwise afford it". I would like to see any municipal network be limited to just 802.11b, or perhaps even slower. 'Free' access can be had by anyone, but if you want faster service, you will need to go with a private business.

Some universities do this now. They allow anyone to use the wireless network, but until you register your MAC address with the authentication server(s), you're limited to a very slow connection (the one I'm most familiar with limits to sub 14kbps). After you register your computer (using some school-issued authentication system), you have access to the full bandwidth of the network.

So, allow the cities to install whatever low-speed networks they want, but aim to take market share from people who are willing to pay for faster service.

Re:A potential solution

[kindbud]

And any private sector business, no matter how crappy, should not be competed against by the government.

Great! Then you would have no problem with a municipality offering services commercial entities are shying away from, right? That's what's happening here, only the telecom companies are trying to prevent munis from competing against commercial services that aren't yet offered in that community.

You snooze, you lose - isn't that how business works?

Re:A potential solution

[VolciMaster]

Sort of. I would be more in favor of the municipality offering some form of package to bring in private competition. Be it short-term reduced taxes, advertising this new service in tourist information, etc.