The New America Foundation says the digital divide is not going away. They hosted a presentation this week at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The purpose of this event was to describe what municipal wireless networks are and explain why members of Congress should care.
Event Documents included Profiles of Municipal and Community Broadband Networks (pdf), a Marvin Sirbu Presentation (pdf) and a Sascha Meinrath Presentation. A letter in favor of municipally run or licensed broadband was signed by 60 organizations.
“Municipal broadband systems provide a necessary means of bringing broadband to many rural communities and poorer urban neighborhoods that lack broadband access or have only one provider. Without the possibility of municipal deployment, these communities will continue to suffer as businesses and residents move to better-connected areas,” said Free Press, a media reform group, in a statement.
Broadband Reports adds a dose of reality;
After promising they’d aid the effort, BellSouth and Cox filed suit against the city of Lafayette to prevent it from pursuing $125 million in revenue bonds to fund a triple-play fiber network. Despite the city informing a Judge 60 other governing bodies have used the same procedure to obtain funds, the Judge sided with the incumbents in the suit, forcing the city to backtrack on its plans. The plan may now face a public vote, which as we’ve seen in these muni battles, is rarely a balanced and democratic affair.
To finance the Comcast Center, which will be Philadelphia s tallest skyscraper when it s completed in 2007, Governor Rendell put together a state aid package worth $42.75 million. The state Department of Community and Economic Development kicked in another $12.75 million in grants and tax credits. Who’s subsidizing who?
PBS Now reviews the issues of the “Philadelphia Experiment.
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Broadband Infrastructure Costs per Kilometer vs. Other Infrastructure Costs Road: $550,000
Source: Canadian Broadband Taskforce Report, 2001 page 46 |
But private enterprise can make it happen, too. All on their own. Portland’s VeriLAN, a commercial wireless ISP, provides 64Kbps, free, to everyone.
A municipal wireless network can provide equal access for competing ISPs. Private telcos won’t.
Lawrence Lessig explains Why Your Broadband Sucks.
Ever think about the poor streetlamp companies, run out of business because municipalities deigned to do completely what private industry would do only incompletely?
Or think about the scandal of public roads: How many tollbooth workers have lost their jobs because we no longer (since about the 18th century) fund all roads through private enterprise?
Municipal buses compete with private taxis. City police departments hamper the growth at Pinkerton’s (now Securitas). It’s a national scandal.
City and state politicians should have the backbone to stand up to self-serving lobbyists. Citizens everywhere should punish telecom toadies who don’t. Backwater broad band has been our fate long enough. Let the markets, both private and public, compete to provide the service that telecom and cable has not.
Jim Baller, a senior principal of the Washington, D.C. firm Baller Herbst Law Group, specializes in representing local governments and public power utilities on communications matters. Broadband Reports has an inside look at the nasty challenges faced by municipalities who want to enter into telecommunications.
Broadband Reports: What about the charge that municipalities do not pay taxes and have access to tax-advantaged financing?Jim Baller: Municipal utilities typically make payments to the local government that are equal to or higher than the local taxes that private communications providers pay. Municipal utilities do not pay income taxes because they do not make profits. On the other hand, they also do not have access to the billions of dollars of tax credits, accelerated depreciation and other tax benefits that are available to private sector providers.
The supposed benefits of tax-advantaged financing are often illusory, especially in today’s fianancial markets. It often turns out that the very significant restrictions and burdens associated with tax-advantaged financing are simply not worth the potential savings of a few basis points in costs.
As a result, local governments are increasingly financing broadband projects through taxable instruments. For example, the FTTH system in Kutztown, PA, was financed through taxable bonds. By contrast, the major cable and telephone companies have access to the best commercial rates.
It’s High Noon for City Clouds. Cities are Getting Virtual and Oregon is Getting Google because of municipal networks. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?
MuniWireless has a list of pending bills in various state legislatures (as of 23 February 2005) as does Civitium. MuniWireless, Sascha Meinrath, Broadband Reports, Free Press, and WiFiNetNews have the latest news from the municipal wireless front.
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