Chicago is about to join the ranks of major cities that will offer Wi-Fi service to its residents. The city announced last week that it will issue RFPs to tech providers in a bid to bring municipal Wi-Fi to the Second City’s 228 square miles, making it one of the biggest, if not the biggest municipal Wi-Fi efforts. Philadelphia’s Wi-Fi plans cover 135 square miles.
While the city isn’t saying how much it will charge for the service, the goal is to make broadband access “affordable” for citizens. If all goes according to plans, Chicago’s wireless broadband service will be up and running by 2007.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:42 PM | Print | Comments (0)The Washington Post fronts above the fold today a very informative piece on the futility of censorship in China. Penned by Philip Pan, the article is entitled “The Click That Broke a Government’s Grip” and provides a detailed timeline of how a senior editor of China Youth Daily Li Datong broke through the phalanx of sophisticated censorship traps to disseminate an editorial critical of the tight regime.
The piece sets the stage by starting out with an editorial meeting, headed by a government lackey, during which all the editors knew, but the government representative did not, that Datong had posted a damning letter that even as the meeting progressed was winding its way through Chinese web sites and blogs.
Colleagues were informing them [via text messages] that a senior editor in the room, Li Datong, had done something astonishing. Just before the meeting, Li had posted a blistering letter on the newspaper’s computer system attacking the Communist Party’s propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters’ pay if their stories upset party officials.
This piece, more than anything I’ve read, underscores the futility of China’s censorship policies. The Internet makes it impossible to regulate the free flow of information and no matter how sophisticated the censorship apparutus may be, information will get out.
The government has sought to control what people read and write on the Web, employing a bureaucracy of censors and one of the world’s most technologically sophisticated system of filters. But the success of those measures has been mixed. As a catalyst that amplifies voices and accelerates events, the Internet presents a formidable challenge to China’s authoritarian political system. Again and again, ordinary Chinese have used it to challenge the government, force their opinions to be heard and alter political outcomes.
Li Datong’s letter made its way to thousands of Chinese web sites before the government could take action — before the bureaucrats who censor information could even decide whether the letter should be banned. When the censorship machinery finally figured out that this was unacceptable criticism of the government, it was too late. Millions of people had access to Datong’s letter and it was impossible to snuff it out.
Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies that curry favor with the Chinese government by willingly participating in the censorship of Internet content should take heed of this episode. The Chinese system of censorship is crumbling and the Chinese people won’t like you very much once the walls controlling free speech in China are torn down for good.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:03 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Here’s a little more on the two Senate bills authorizing unlicensed use of unused broadcast spectrum:
The text of Senator Stevens’ (R-AK) one page “American Broadband for Communities” bill is here. It seems to be pretty straightforward, giving the FCC 180 days after enactment to establish rules for unlicensed use of “[a]ny unused broadcast television spectrum in the band between 72 and 698 megaHertz, inclusive, other than spectrum in the band between 608 and 614 megaHertz, inclusive.”
Though I couldn’t find Senator Allen’s bill posted on the Senate web site, a news report suggests it is very similar to Stevens’ bill:
The Wireless Innovation Act specifically requires the Federal Communications Commission to permit unlicensed use of unassigned broadcast spectrum between 54 MHz and 698 MHz within 180 days of enactment.
Co-sponsors of Allen’s bill include Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), John Sununu (R-NH), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA).
Both bills were endorsed by Consumers Union and Free Press (see letters of support for Steven’s and Allen’s bill)
Jim Snider, Director of Research in the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, has some informative background material on his personal blog. Noting that he’s “devoted a good portion of [his] life over the last three years to getting to this point,” Jim says “this development is very exciting, to say the least.”
In a new NAF issue brief, Jim makes some strong arguments in favor of unlicensed use of this spectrum. Though he’s raised most of them in previous papers and reports (some of which he lists on his blog), one struck me as new and particularly intriguing:
Allowing the Federal government to take control of local spectrum rights via a tacit form of eminent domain (that is no less consequential because it deals with the invisible airwaves rather than real property) and then give away those rights to a handful of the largest and most politically powerful companies in the U.S. (albeit in the name of “deregulation,” “spectrum flexibility,” “investment certainty,” and other Orwellian claims) should be an outrage to all Americans because it is a takings of their property without just compensation.
Though it seems likely that the bill will be opposed by broadcasters, licensed wireless service providers and probably cable and telco broadband service providers, it’s heartening to see Republicans and Democrats coming together to support what seems to be a very rational and productive use of underutilized spectrum. At the least, watching what happens to these bills in the weeks and months ahead will be a lesson in how Congress works (or doesn’t). If any IPD readers are close to the lobbying and negotiating action on either bill, you’re invited to send us an email and/or post a comment.
Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 2:21 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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