[IP] Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>
Date: December 1, 2004 3:52:15 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@warpspeed.com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks
Reply-To: dewayne@warpspeed.com

 Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks
 By JESSE DRUCKER
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110185892280287396,00.html? 
mod=technology_main_whats_news>

 Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell said late Tuesday night that he
 had signed into law a large telecommunications bill placing severe
 restrictions on the ability of cities and towns to offer
 telecommunications services, an item that heavily lobbied by Verizon
 Communications Inc. and other big telephone companies in similar
 legislation across the country.

 The governor's move was closely watched because it could hurt the
 burgeoning movement by municipalities around the U.S. to provide
 high-tech telecom services, such as wireless Internet access using the
 technology known as Wi-Fi.

 The legislation bars municipalities from offering paid telecom
 services. While that provision was originally inserted in response to
 a fiber network in the Boro of Kutztown, Pa., it was also a likely
 barrier to plans by the city of Philadelphia to offer low or no cost
 citywide wireless Internet access in low-income neighborhoods without
 high-speed web services.

 On Tuesday, Philadelphia and Verizon officials said they had reached a
 separate agreement to let the city proceed with its plans. However,
 the legislation signed by Gov. Rendell gives phone companies the right
 to deny municipalities the ability to deploy their own networks, which
 could hinder the deployment of Wi-Fi networks elsewhere.

 In a message to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Gov.
 Rendell said that the bill's provision limiting municipal competition
 was a "problem." However, he pointed to Verizon's agreement to waive
 its right to stop the Philadelphia Wi-Fi network, and said the state
 would "work with other municipalities on projects that they have
 established or propose to establish in order to ensure that, to the
 extent that they are now viable, they will also have the opportunity
 to succeed."

 The legislation also contains a potentially lucrative provision giving
 phone companies like Verizon large incentives to promise to modernize
 their networks. Some have criticized that provision since companies
 would be eligible for the incentives after filing the modernization
 plans, but before the upgrades have actually taken place.

 Write to Jesse Drucker at jesse.drucker@wsj.com


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