Phone Company Lobbying to Keep Wi-Fi Under the Wire
Blessed are the Geeks, for they shall internet the earth
Phone Company Lobbying
to Keep Wi-Fi Under the Wire
Douglas Chick
Philadelphias city government has plans to deploy a
Wi-Fi grid throughout its city that will offer IEEE 802.11b wireless
Internet access, but not if Verizon has anything to do with it.
Verizon Communications Inc. has fiercely lobbied the state of Pennsylvania and a bill is on its way to the governors desk that will ban any government entity from offering broadband wireless for a fee. 12 other states have adopted similar laws that have already been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the city of Philadelphia said that it created such a project to help encourage economic growth and aid poor residents with cheaper Internet access.
The press secretary to state Senator Vincent Fumo, who opposed the bill said; Verizon has fallen short on its promise to build a more up-to-date network over the past 10 years, contributing to the lack of broadband availability.
Personally speaking, I would love to live in a city that provided IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi. The current program I have from another popular phone company is $80 a month and is so slow that it is almost unusable, compared to my T-Mobile IEEE 802.11b hot spot. I dont know the language of the bill in Pennsylvania, or the laws in the other 12 states that prohibit cities from deploying a Wi-Fi grid, but I can see why there fear it. A citywide grid would replace troublesome DSL and Cable modems.
Hearing news about how phone company lobbyist are controlling the growth of technology is very disturbing. Phone companies have retarded the growth of Cable modem use in the U.S. because they were too antiquated to compete against a faster cable technology, forcing cable companies to suppress the speed of their services. (In South Korea, cable modem is 300 Megs, as compared to our 1.55) To use elected government officials to control the competition of Wi-Fi is even more disturbing. If corporate lobbyist controls communication in the U.S., than how can we advance as a people beyond the grip of corporate quarter sales projects?
