September 27, 2007

Tim Wu on Why Free Muni-Wi-Fi Flopped

Columbia Law School's Tim Wu (my second reference to Wu in two days) has this piece in Slate today that sums up how free municipal Wi-Fi plans have cratered. He blames the failure of this once-hot notion on the fact... More...

August 30, 2007

Municipal Wi-Fi is So Over...But It Always Has Been

It was inevitable that EarthLink’s massive layoffs and reorganization would spark a round of articles and blog items reassessing the previous rose-colored outlook for municipal Wi-Fi. EarthLink was the biggest private sector player in this field, with plans to build... More...

May 25, 2007

A Tale of Two Cities' Wi-Fi Initiatives

Municipal Wi-Fi is at a point where hype is meeting reality. A lot of cities, not to mention EarthLink, one of the biggest private sector participants in the muni-Wi-Fi realm, are growing skeptical about the viability of wireless service as... More...

May 11, 2007

Muni Wi-Fi is Such a Pain

Business Week has this piece about the problems with municpal Wi-Fi networks, and boy can I relate. EarthLink has premised a good chunk of its growth strategy on building Wi-Fi networks for cities and is learning the hard way that... More...

January 19, 2007

Big Battle Brewing in SF over EarthLink-Google Wi-Fi

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is in for a political fight to rescue his decision to give EarthLink, which has partnered with Google, a city-wide contract to construct a Wi-Fi network and offer Wi-Fi services. I know that the politics... More...

September 27, 2006

Big Wi-Fi Project Planned in Colorado

Ten Colorado cities have banded together to build a geographically huge Wi-Fi network. The communities, west of Denver and stretching from Lakewood to Boulder, plan to construct a privately built and operated Wi-Fi system that covers 220 square miles and... More...

September 6, 2006

Group Tapped for Silicon Valley Free Wi-Fi

Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a consortium of companies that includes Azulstar Networks, Cisco Systems, IBM and Seakay, has been selected to build the largest, at least geographically, free Wi-Fi network in the country. The network will span 1,500 miles and... More...

August 30, 2006

Culver City Forces Users to Waive Free Speech Rights

Courtesy of Dave Weinberger, I came across this item from First Amendment attorney John Mitchell that seems too bad to be true, but it is. Culver City, CA is offering its citizens free Wi-Fi service, but there’s one big hitch:... More...

AT&T Lands Springfield in First Solo Muni Wi-Fi Effort

With local governments launching new muni-Wi-Fi networks at a rapid clip, it was only a matter of time before incumbent telcos and cable operators stopped fighting the municipal broadband trends and started vying to become the network providers for these... More...

August 1, 2006

Boston's Wacky Wi-Fi Plan

The city of Boston is pursuing a decidely unique approach to mounting its muni-broadband services. Instead of contracting out the initiative to a commercial third-party, Boston has instead decided to set up a non-profit foundation that would run a common... More...

July 21, 2006

MetroFi Teaming with AT&T?

Om has this piece today about how muni-wireless company MetroFi has teamed with top telco AT&T to bring free Wi-Fi to the nation’s cities. MetroFi is on a tear — the company already serves Santa Clara, Cupertino and Sunnyvale with... More...

July 18, 2006

Early St. Cloud Muni Stats Scary for Incumbents?

Though very preliminary, some penetration and survey results for the muni-wireless project in St. Cloud, FL, support the notion that muni broadband could have major disruptive impacts on the broadband duopoly. In early March, the 15-square mile city, working with... More...

July 14, 2006

Tale of NYC's Wi-Fi Prophet

The New York Times’ Robin Finn has today this profile of New York City Wi-Fi entrepreneur Marshall Brown. Brown’s start-up, Wi-Fi Salon, won a contract to provide Wi-Fi to NYC’s well-visited public parks, and his efforts seem to be more... More...

July 6, 2006

Wi-Fi in NYC Parks Coming in August

For those of us who travel to New York often enough, it’s a commonly experienced fact that piggybacking on a legitimately free Wi-Fi connection is a big problem in the Big Apple. But, starting in August the city will start... More...

July 1, 2006

What If End-Users Owned Their Access Pipe?

A 6/29 post by PBS tech columnist Robert Cringely is entitled “If we build it they will come: It’s time to own our own last mile.” It’s apparently based on conversations he’s had with Bob Frankston, who years ago wrote... More...

June 29, 2006

Muni-Broadband on the Rise

CNET’s News.com has done an excellent job lately of documenting the rise of municipal broadband, starting with the most recent piece on the Senate Commerce Committee’s approval yesterday of its telecom reform legislation, which contains a provision that bars states... More...

June 26, 2006

Free Wi-Fi Doesn't Fly in Taipei

The New York Times’ Ken Belson has this piece today on an ambitious city-backed Wi-Fi project in Taipei, Taiwan. The government there has commissioned an extensive Wi-Fi network called WiFly that has 4,100 hot spots reaching 90% of the population.... More...

June 10, 2006

Sacramento Wi-Fi Founders as Vendor Pulls Out

One high-profile municipal Wi-Fi project is in jeopardy today after its technology vendor, MobilePro (based near me in Bethesda, MD) pulled out of the project. It seems that after granting the project to MobilePro, and following a fanfare launch in... More...

May 18, 2006

Spitzer Builds Broadband Plank into Campaign

The Personal Democracy Forum held a conference earlier this week on How Technology is Changing Politics and keynote speaker Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate, took advantage of the event to spell out a new campaign plank:... More...

May 9, 2006

We Really Do Want our Internet

Mike Bookey, a friend of mine who recently published a book called “America at the Internet Crossroads: Choosing the road to innovation, wealth, and a supercharged economy,” likes to say that, before we start debating the details of Internet policy,... More...

May 4, 2006

Philly Wi-Fi Passes Hurdle While Cincy Wi-Fi Launches

Municipal Wi-Fi efforts are steaming along. The high-profile project in Philadelphia to deliver city-wide Wi-Fi service passed its last hurdle yesterday and construction of the system is slated to begin in two weeks. The last step in approving the EarthLink-powered... More...

April 29, 2006

Giant Public Wi-Fi Projects Cropping Up All Over

Public Wi-Fi is a major trend, but it seems like today there is a confluence of news about big honking Wi-Fi efforts. First, the Wireless Silicon Valley project, dubbed the biggest Wi-Fi project in America, issued its RFP for bidders... More...

April 25, 2006

St. Cloud Mayor: Press Reports Tell the Wrong Story

(Reston, VA) The mayor of St. Cloud, FL said today at the Digital Cities Expo that the press reports yesterday about problems with the city’s high-profile free Wi-Fi project are distorted. Mayor Glenn Sangiovanni said the city’s ground-breaking municipal broadband... More...

April 24, 2006

Wi-Fi Problems in St. Cloud

St. Cloud, Florida is apparently experiencing problems with its high-profile municipal Wi-Fi project. The 15 square-mile project, which offers free service to city residents, is experiencing “hiccups” that some residents say make it difficult to use the service. The issue,... More...

April 20, 2006

Cities Should Use Muni-Wi-Fi for Local Information

Anthony Townsend from the Institute for the Future has this item on the state of ad-supported muni-Wi-Fi networks. One point he makes, and it seems like an obvious one, is that cities should leverage their Wi-Fi networks to provide local... More...

April 4, 2006

F2C Panelists: Muni Broadband is a Viable Business

(Silver Spring, MD) As the number of municipal broadband initiatives mount, skeptics await what they believe will be the inevitable collapse of these government-backed ventures. Although it’s relatively easy to build communications networks, running them in a financially viable manner... More...

March 29, 2006

NOLA Official: BellSouth Trying to Stop Muni-Wi-Fi

Leslie Cauley has this item in USA Today about the status of New Orleans’ free muni-Wi-Fi initiative. Greg Meffert, New Orleans’ CIO, claims that BellSouth is lobbying against legislation that would allow the city’s free Wi-Fi service to keep running... More...

March 9, 2006

DC Seeks Muni-Wi-Fi That Aids Low-Income Areas

The city of Washington, DC is jumping on the muni-Wi-Fi bandwagon and is gearing up to seek bids on an exclusive eight-year franchise, according to this article by Arshad Mohammed in the Washington Post. In a departure from how other... More...

March 7, 2006

Shaw-Vonage Spat: A Sign of the Future?

In the midst of the U.S. debate over net neutrality, the challenge by Vonage to Shaw’s $10 surcharge is, as Cynthia notes, a significant development. Though it turns out that Shaw has been doing this since at least last May... More...

March 2, 2006

More Details on Earthlink-Philly Wi-Fi Plans

Dow Jones Newswire reports on some details of Earthlink’s agreement with the city of Philadelphia to deploy and operate a citywide Wi-Fi network. According to the story, “the city and Wireless Philadelphia - a nonprofit charged with overseeing the... More...

March 1, 2006

"Our Network Carries Our Services"

The issue of net neutrality isn’t only a factor in the wireline broadband access space. As Forbes points out, it’s also starting to emerge in the wireless 3G space. The creators of Slingbox…have another clever idea: Let consumers watch their... More...

February 28, 2006

Time Warner Backs Community Wi-Fi in Cincinnati

David Gardner at TechWeb has this interesting write-up of a unique community Wi-Fi initiative in Cincinnati called Lily Pad. Lily Pad is a partnership among the City of Cincinnati, Time Warner Cable, and the Lily Pad non-profit organization to bring... More...

February 26, 2006

Cable to Offer City-Wide Wi-Fi Services with "CableRoam"?

Courtesy of Engadget comes this RedHerring piece which claims that according to internal documents, cable’s R&D arm CableLabs is working on a new wireless initiative tenatively dubbed CableRoam. CableRoam is supposedly a new tech initiative that would pull together all... More...

February 24, 2006

More on EarthLink's Muni Wi-Fi Plans

Picking up on Mitch’s hope that efforts by Google and EarthLink and others to mount muni-Wi-Fi could stave off distorting net neutrality regulations, Richard Greenfield of Pali Research circulated today slides that EarthLink used during its recent analysts day to... More...

February 23, 2006

In the Wisdom of Congress...???

I don’t claim to be a Congressional prognosticator. But a series of recent developments got me wondering if Congress could resolve the battle over the Internet’s future by choosing not to impose net neutrality requirements on incumbent broadband providers, while... More...

Google, Earthlink Team Up on San Francisco Wi-Fi Bid

According to the Mercury News, city officials said Tuesday that Google and EarthLink have teamed up to submit a proposal to create a city-wide wireless Internet network for San Francisco. The bid was one of six San Francisco city officials... More...

February 19, 2006

Windy City Wi-Fi

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... More...

February 13, 2006

Heads-Up: Muni-Broadband Hearing Tomorrow

Peter Kiley at C-SPAN reminded me that tomorrow is the next hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee’s aggressive slate of hearings leading up to a Telecom Act rewrite. The subject is “State and Local Issues and Municipal Networks,” and the... More...

February 9, 2006

Boston Headed for City-Wide Wi-Fi

This item from Tech Web discusses the announcement yesterday by Boston Mayor Tomas Menino of a task force to come up with a plan to bring Wi-Fi to Boston. Menino named three business executives to co-chair the task force, Menino... More...

February 4, 2006

Encouraging New Access Pipes & Business Models

As Cynthia has discussed in recent posts here, here and here, network neutrality and related issues such as video franchising and municipal broadband continue to hover over policy deliberations in Washington and, to some extent, broadband industry business models. And,... More...

February 2, 2006

Cambridge and MIT Team on Muni-Wi-Fi

Municipal Wi-Fi projects are sprouting up all across the country, but one in Cambridge, MA is, I believe, the only muni-Wi-Fi project that will be headed by a university —- MIT. The city of Cambridge has partnered with MIT to... More...

January 28, 2006

Silicon Valley's Proposed Wi-Fi Network Questioned

As Mitch pointed out, a new effort is underway to bring Wi-Fi to the 1,500 square-mile Silicon Valley region. While the effort sounds promising, and ideal for the nation’s cradle of information technology innovation, questions are already being raised about... More...

January 27, 2006

Intel to Work on Silicon Valley Wireless RFP

According to a press release issued Thursday, blanketing Silicon Valley with a broadband wireless network is the goal of Smart Valley, an initiative of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (JVSVN), the San Mateo county Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT) and Intel, which... More...

January 19, 2006

Community Wi-Fi Proponents Carry Political Swack

The New York Times’ Glenn Fleishman has this piece today on how community Wi-Fi advocates are gaining grassroots skills. Despite the article’s central thrust — community Wi-Fi proponents are political forces to be reckoned with — the piece makes these... More...

January 11, 2006

City Encounters Wi-Fi Problems

Courtesy of Mike at TechDirt, the city of Lompoc, CA, once a touted example of the benefits of muni-broadband, is coping with mysterious problems with its Wi-Fi service. The service was supposed to be launched on January 17, but signal... More...

January 10, 2006

SBC's Lindner on Conflict Between Content and Distribution

Speaking today at Citigroup’s Global Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference, AT&T CFO Rick Lindner downplayed the criticism of the company’s idea of charging unaffiliated service and content providers for access to the broadband network. (Webcast can be found here.) “It’s... More...

January 9, 2006

Can Two Visions of the Internet Co-Exist? I Think So.

David Smith has an interesting post on his Preoccupations blog that discusses DRM and, more broadly, the evolution of the web. In it, David cites posts by Julian Bond, Doc Searls, Rafael Behr and David Berlind, all of which echo... More...

January 8, 2006

Broadcast Spectrum: A Key Piece of the Policy Puzzle

Michael Parekh cites a key section of a Washington Monthly essay I discussed Thursday night and cited in a follow-up post triggered in part by Michael’s thoughts on “Big Bypass Battles” and video download services. The essay and Michael’s posts... More...

Miami Beach Gears Up for Muni-Wi-Fi

Muni-broadband is cropping up all over the nation, with cities across the country tending to opt for free or low-cost Wi-Fi services. The latest example: Miami Beach, which will start pilot-testing on January 20 a free Wi-Fi option. City officials... More...

January 6, 2006

Big Bypass: Another Type of Convergence?

Recent posts by Michael Parekh (see here, here and here) and Om Malik (see here, here, here and here) on network neutrality, Internet-delivered video and the relationship between the two, remind me once again that, as a society, we face... More...

Community Internet: A Democratic Campaign Theme?

Glenn Fleishman at WiFiNet News points to a long Washington Monthly essay by media reform advocate Robert McChesney and John Podesta, former Clinton Chief of Staff and now President and CEO of the Center for American Progress. The essay closes... More...

January 4, 2006

Spending My "20% Time" on a Google Grand Plan

I’m pretty sure that, if I worked at Google, I’d spend my “20% time” working on a Cringely-esque business plan involving large volumes of low-cost Google Cubes and data centers, and maybe even Google-funded local access networks…Or maybe its just... More...

December 31, 2005

Court OKs Missouri City's Fiber Network

Telephony’s Ed Gubbins reports that Time Warner has “lost an appeal aimed at blocking the city of North Kansas City, Mo., from extending its fiber optic network to residents and local businesses.” The city’s network already connects municipal buildings. Time... More...

December 3, 2005

BellSouth Retaliates Against NOLA Over Muni Wi-Fi

As New Orleans struggles to rise from the muck, BellSouth intends to teach the city a lesson. According to this article from the Washington Post, within hours of the city’s announcement of a muni-backed free Wi-Fi service, the petulant telco... More...

November 29, 2005

NOLA to Get City-Provided Free Wi-Fi

Hoping to help spur an economic revival in the devastated area, the City of New Orleans plans to build the country’s first municipally owned wireless Internet system that will be free to all users. Mayor Ray Nagin will unveil the... More...

Fight Still Continues in Lafayette over Muni-Broadband

The parish of Lafayette, LA was in the spotlight earlier this year for holding a public referendum on funding for a municipal broadband project. The vote came in overwhelmingly in favor of the intiative, and the cable and phone companies,... More...

November 17, 2005

WSJ's Drucker: A Policy Failure in Broadband?

According to The Wall Street Journal’s Jesse Drucker, “The U.S. needs some big-picture thinking by policy makers about broadband. The first thing they need to do is admit that U.S. broadband isn’t keeping pace with the global market.” The inferior... More...

November 15, 2005

Cisco Aims for City-Wide Wi-Fi

The municipal broadband market shows no signs of slowing down, much to the dismay of incumbent cable and phone companies. The latest sign that city-supplied Wi-Fi is here to stay: Cisco has thrown its hat into the ring. According to... More...

November 9, 2005

Houston Headed for City-Wide Wi-Fi?

On the eve of his successful reelection campaign, Houston Mayor Bill White said Monday that if he were reelected, he would commit to offering Wi-Fi service throughout the city. White was reelected and now must review his campaign pledge. White... More...

October 31, 2005

Susan Crawford: Focus on Facilities-Based Competition

As Cynthia notes, comments by SBC CEO Ed Whitacre quoted in Business Week have triggered strong reactions from within the ranks of net-neutrality advocates, with some describing as extortion Whitacre’s assertion that “there’s going to have to be some mechanism... More...

October 30, 2005

Comcast Dissed in Its Hometown?

Richard Siklos has a unique take on Philadelphia’s muncipal Wi-Fi initiative in today’s New York Times, raising the question about whether the city’s effort to mount wireless broadband is an insult to Comcast, which has its headquarters in Philly. On... More...

October 28, 2005

Earthlink Wi-Fi: A New Force in Broadband Access?

Less than a month after being chosen to build and operate a 135-square-mile citywide Wi-Fi network in Philadelphia, Earthlink has secured a second municipal Wi-Fi contract, this time in Anaheim, CA, the home of Disneyland and a major convention center.... More...

October 19, 2005

Muni Wi-Fi on the Rise

Mike Grebb has a good piece in Wired on the growing number of cities that seek to build municipal Wi-Fi networks. (Disclosure: Mike is a contributor to my publication IP Media Monitor.) Because of the cost structure, many cities are... More...

October 18, 2005

The Politics of San Francisco's Wi-Fi Project

Over at Om Malik’s blog (no longer Om Malik’s Broadband Blog given the slightly outmoded nature of the term “broadband”), guest blogger Jackson West has a highly readable summary of the bids submitted for the city’s Wi-Fi project. Among other... More...

October 15, 2005

San Francisco Posts WiFi RFI Responses

Muniwireless provides a link to a page on the San Francisco TechConnect web site where you can download the various responses to the city’s Request for Information. From the TechConnect site: The responses fall into two categories as described in... More...

Local Firm Proposes Citywide WiFi in Milwaukee

Muniwireless reports that: “Milwaukee officials will announce today that a local company plans to invest between $20 million and $25 million in creating a citywide wireless computer network, which would put the city at the forefront of a national push... More...

October 6, 2005

A New Analysis of the Muni-Broadband Debate

Michael J. Balhoff and Robert C. Rowe have put together a 211-page report entitled “Municipal Broadband: Digging Beneath the Surface.” Regardless of whether one agrees with its conclusions, the report seems like a worthy read for anyone seriously wanting to... More...

October 4, 2005

Earthlink & Philly Offer Another Broadband Access Model

Though Google’s free WiFi proposal in San Francisco is arguably more radical in its implications, Philadelphia selection of Earthlink’s proposal, reported today by the Wall Street Journal, also represents a significant step toward developing new broadband access models. All the... More...

Google's Free Wi-Fi Offer Not a Total Slam-Dunk

CNET’s News.com’s Stephanie Olsen has a piece on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s high-profile proposal to deliver Wi-Fi across the city, made even more visible by Google’s offer to deliver the wireless broadband option at no charge to users. Neither... More...

Must-See: CNET Visual Tool on Municipal Broadband

CNET’s News.com has a very cool visual tool on muncipal broadband that is hard to describe but must be seen. It’s a clean graphic map of stories, topics and companies dealing with the issue of municipal broadband. Radiating out from... More...

October 2, 2005

Google WiFi, Web 2.0 and Change

After my first post on Google’s proposal to build a WiFi network in San Francisco, I came across a piece written last April by Esme Vos, founder and editor of MuniWireless.com (which coincidentally held a conference last week in San... More...

October 1, 2005

A New Broadband Access Model From Google?

Published reports about Google’s San Francisco WiFi proposal suggest the company is exploring what would essentially be a new model for broadband access, a model Google seems particularly well positioned to pursue. In such a model, Google would use a... More...

September 27, 2005

MuniWireless Report and Conference

MuniWireless founder Esme Vos has just published a report called “2005 Municipal Wireless State of the Market Report,” which she researched and wrote in collaboration with Microcast Corporation. Vos will be presenting the study’s findings this week at a 9/28-9/29... More...

September 17, 2005

Philly's Municipal Wi-Fi Under Fire

For the first time, Philadelphia’s ambitious plan to offer Wi-Fi across the city has come under fire, thanks in part to efforts by cable critics, who contend that muni-Wi-Fi isn’t financially viable and could leave taxpayers holding the bag. Last... More...

September 14, 2005

Rasiej Comes in Fourth

Andrew Rasiej, who was running for NYC’s Public Advocate job, lost by a wide margin in yesterday’s primary. Incumbent Betsy Gotbaum (who was weakly endorsed by the New York Times) got 48% of the vote, followed by two other candidates.... More...

Vermont Counties Embark on FTTP

While muni-broadband in densely populated areas stirs debates between service providers and municipalities, dozens of low-density regional authorities across the country are moving ahead on publicly owned broadband networks with nary a peep from cable operators and phone companies. The... More...

September 4, 2005

Are Big Players Getting into Muni Wi-Fi?

Business Week suggests the answer is yes: As towns across the country launch wireless broadband networks to bring affordable Web access to their residents, companies from tiny RedMoon to heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ ) are jockeying to become... More...

August 30, 2005

Verizon Doesn't Oppose Muni-Broadband

While SBC is seeking to block municipalities from building and owning broadband networks, and cable operators campaign against the government usurping of what they believe is a private sector activity, Verizon is surprisingly warm to the idea of some municipal... More...

August 23, 2005

Muni Broadband Beachheads in Iowa

A story in the Chicago Tribune looks at the muni-debate in Iowa, where cities like Cedar Falls and Spencer have already deployed their own broadband network, and where dozens of other communities have voted to establish utilities that would allow... More...

August 18, 2005

Intel & Friends Back Digital Communities Projects

Internetnews.com reports that Intel and a group of other tech companies are backing a “Digital Communities” initiative “to help municipal governments use wireless technology and innovative applications to expand and improve services for businesses and citizens.” Intel said it plans... More...

Phillie Wi-Fi Bidders Down to Two

According to Muniwireless.com, Philadelphia has decided to pursue concurrent negotiations with HP and Earthlink, which are heading up two of three consortia the city last month selected as finalists to design, build and maintain Phillie’s planned citywide Wi-Fi network. AT&T... More...

National Journal Looks at Muni Broadband Issue

This month the National Journal’s Insider Update has published a series of articles about the muni-broadband sector. It begins with an overview, and includes stories about Lafayette, LA, the city of Bristol, which overlaps the Tennessee and Virginia border, and... More...

August 17, 2005

San Francisco Solicits Comments on City Wi-Fi

Courtesy of Dan Gillmor, the city of San Francisco issued guidelines on Tuesday for its project to “ensure universal, affordable wireless broadband access for all San Franciscans.” Plans call for cheap or even free Wi-Fi service in the 49-mile square... More...

Hermosa Beach Approves Municipal Wi-Fi

The town of Hermosa Beach, California has joined the growing ranks of municipalities that offer Wi-Fi services. The city council unanimously approved on Tuesday a non-exclusive, renewable five-year franchise with the owner of Treyspan Inc. that calls for the delivery... More...

August 12, 2005

Council to Lobby Congress on Franchises and Muni-Broadband

Courtesy of the FTTH Blog, the Fiber-to-the-Home Council is kicking off a lobbying campaign to persuade Congress to adopt a “converged services approach” as it wrestles with the 1996 Telecom Act rewrite. In a letter to Congress, the Council said... More...

August 11, 2005

More Action on the Muni-Broadband Front

The latest issue of MuniWireless points to additional cities taking steps down the road leading to municipal broadband deployments. New Haven, CT, has “hired Civitium (who are consultants to Philadelphia and Miami Beach) ‘to complete a feasibility study, facilitate a... More...

Muni Broadband Projects Include VoIP & Public Service Apps

TechWeb reports that vCentrix, a Massachusetts start-up, “has spied some low-lying fruit in the form of municipalities interested in rolling out VoIP for their citizens and taxpayers.” The company’s first muni-VoIP customer is the town of Norwood, MA, whose public... More...

Intel as Muni-Broadband Ally

According to Dana Blankenhorn at Moore’s Law, “Intel holds the telecommunications balance of power in its hand.” Dana cites a piece in The Register, which says: Intel is throwing its financial, technical and lobbying weight behind the rising tide of... More...

August 8, 2005

Lafayette Muni Battle Shifts to State PSC

Following a mid-July vote by citizens to approve the project, the battle over Lafayette’s planned municipal broadband network continues at the state PSC. According to The Daily Advisor: Lafayette Utilities System and BellSouth appear to be headed for a showdown... More...

Yankee Group on Munis: Phased Approach Works Best

Telephony’s Carol Wilson summarizes the conclusions of a new report on municipal broadband by Yankee Group analyst Tara Howard: “Incumbent providers have yet to develop a profitable model for expanding their networks into rural areas, leaving communities to feel the... More...

August 7, 2005

Must-Read: NYT Op-Ed on Wi-Fi in Hermiston, OR

NYT’s Nicholas Kristof has an op-ed piece today with the cool title of “When Pigs Wi-Fi.” The well-written editorial focuses on the abundance of Wi-Fi connectivity in a little corner of Oregon’s cowboy country called Hermiston. Kristof says that Hermiston... More...

August 5, 2005

Muni Wi-Fi: A Battle the Media Loves

The battle between municipalities and broadband providers continues to attract the attention of tech journalists and bloggers. It’s a political fight of big proportions, with powerful cities battling powerful cable and phone companies. ZDNet’s David Farber has posted a video... More...

August 2, 2005

Denver to Build Closed Muni-Wi-Fi Network

The Berkman Center’s Dave Weinberger has a colorful post on Joho the Blog regarding the city of Denver’s plans to build a muni Wi-Fi network that they can’t open to the public due to a state law that makes it... More...

July 31, 2005

Ensign Bill on Municipal Broadband Networks

In two recent posts (see here and here), we considered the tangled interactions among provisions in Section 7 of the Ensign Bill related to network neutrality and open access. Section 15 of the bill also deals with a hot IPD-related... More...

July 28, 2005

Are Muni-Wireless Networks Secure?

Advanced IP Pipeline has an interesting piece by contributing writer Frank Bulk that raises an overlooked aspect to the rise of municipal Wi-Fi networks: security. Most muni-Wi-Fi systems are based on 802.11 standards and are designed to be open and... More...

July 25, 2005

iTown's 100 Mbps Service Garnering Press

Rural and small town broadband company iTown is making a splash in the press this week with its recent deal to bring 100 Mbps service to small towns in West Virginia. USA Today’s Leslie Cauley has a piece on iTown’s... More...

Muni Wi-Fi Cropping Up on Florida's Gold Coast

Courtesy of Om Malik, the South Florida Sun Sentinel has a piece today on the plans by a group of municipalities to launch Wi-Fi along Florida’s Gold Coast. Communities such as Boynton Beach, Coral Gables, Delray Beach, Hollywood, Miami Beach,... More...

July 22, 2005

AT&T, HP, Earthlink Finalists for Philly Wi-Fi

Wireless Philadelphia has selected three consortiums led by AT&T, Hewlett-Packard and Earthlink as finalists to design, build and maintain Philadelphia’s planned citywide Wi-Fi network. The nonprofit organization plans to make a final selection, including a second “backup” bidder, on July... More...

July 19, 2005

Massachusetts Municipality to Offer VoIP

Courtesy of ZDNet’s Russell Shaw, the town of Norwood, Massachusetts is among the first muncipalities, if not the first muncipality, in the country to offer its own VoIP service. The service will be offered by the city-owned utility Norwood Light.... More...

July 17, 2005

Governors Diss Municipal Broadband

At the meeting of the National Governors Association this weekend, the states’ top executives took up the issue of broadband access and the role that broadband plays in society. But, the tone of the meeting took a decidely anti-muni turn,... More...

Lafayette Vote Favors Muni-Fiber Build

The city of Lafayette, LA won the public’s approval to move ahead with a $125 million bond to fund the city’s construction of a new fiber-based broadband system capable of delivering high-speed Internet, video programming, voice service and more. Voters... More...

July 15, 2005

Public-Private Alliance Offers Free Wi-Fi in Iowa Cities

Telephony’s Carol Wilson reports that Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Iowa City, IA, “are using a free Wi-Fi service to help economic development in their downtown areas.” The three cities, which are situated along the Interstate 380 corridor in eastern Iowa,... More...

July 14, 2005

Texas Senate Passes Telco Franchising Bill

According to Telco Media News, the Texas state Senate, in a 25-3 vote, has approved a bill that frees telcos from the need to obtain local franchises. The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Troy Fraser, now moves to the... More...

July 13, 2005

Telco Franchising Issue Reemerges in Texas

According to the Dallas News, the issue of telco-franchising has reemerged in a special session of the Texas legislature called by Gov. Rick Perry. By Tuesday, the top Senate and House telecom negotiators had forged a compromise over a number... More...

July 11, 2005

Must-Read: Sascha Meinrath on Muni-Wireless Costs

Sascha Meinrath has taken seriously the task of estimating the costs of muni-wireless, financial figures that typically slide all over the map. He has developed a financial model that estimates capital and operating costs dependent on node size and population... More...

July 6, 2005

Coalition of 40+ Groups Lobby Congress on Community Broadband

A coalition of more than 40 local government, high-tech and consumer groups has formed to lobby Congress on community broadband. The group, which includes the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the Fiber to the Home Council,... More...

July 3, 2005

Incumbents Show Interest in New Muni-Wireless Projects

MuniWireless.com highlights the latest wave of activity on the muni-wireless front, including developments in Portland, OR, Minneapolis, MN, Charleston, SC, and Oakland County, MI. Wi-Fi Planet also reports on the Portland project. One interesting aspect of the latest wave of... More...

June 29, 2005

Your Unfair Competition is My Level Playing Field

Muni-broadband critics often cite tax and interest-rate savings and the potential for cross-subsidy by municipal utility revenues and operations as giving municipal broadband projects an unfair competitive advantage. According to WCFCourier.com, a muni-broadband official who worked for TCI when it... More...

Muni Battleground Spreads to Iowa

From the FTTHblog: The muni broadband debate is raging in Iowa with familiar players on both sides. In the FOR corner are citizens groups, and rural utilities. In the AGAINST corner are the cable TV companies. A citizens group called... More...

Baller Responds to Heartland Analysis of Muni Projects

Telephony’s Carol Wilson reports that Jim Baller, an attorney with The Baller Herbst Law Group, claims “a Heartland Institute study challenging the financial viability of municipal broadband networks is rife with ‘mistakes, misinterpretations, unsupported and insupportable claims, irrelevancies, innuendos, key... More...

June 26, 2005

Orlando Learns Lessons from Muni Wi-Fi Test

Orlando, FL, has shut down its test of free Wi-Fi service in a downtown area, apparently for two related reasons: a lack of usage and the expense it was incurring. The Orlando Sentinel reports the news here, while comments on... More...

Michigan Gives Boost to Broadband over Power Line

According to a press release from the Michigan Broadband Development Authority (MBDA), the agency “has closed on a $520,000 loan with the New York-based Shpigler Group, Inc. that will bring broadband over power line (BPL) service to two mid-Michigan communities.”... More...

June 23, 2005

McCain, Lautenberg: Let Cities Decide on Muni-Broadband

National Journal’s Insider Update reports that: Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Thursday will introduce legislation that would permit municipalities to offer low-cost broadband service…Their measure, dubbed the “Community Broadband Act of 2005,” would serve as a counterweight... More...

Taped Interview a New Weapon in Lafayette Muni-Fiber Battle

Telephony’s Ed Gubbins reports on a new development in the battle over an upcoming vote on a proposed muni-fiber project in Lafayette, LA. Apparently, a 53-year old Republican voter contacted for a survey believed to be sponsored by BellSouth and... More...

June 21, 2005

BellSouth, Cox Talking to Lafayette Officials

More news on the Lafayette muni-fiber front (also see previous post on a new Heartland study critical of the city’s proposed muni-fiber project). According to several Louisiana newspapers, there are signs of a budding dialog between Lafayette city officials and... More...

New Heartland Study Challenges Lafayette Muni Plan

Carol Wilson reports in Telephony that the Heartland Institute has released a study “claim[ing] that the city of Lafayette, LA, is greatly underestimating the marketing and content acquisition costs it will face in building and operating services over a fiber-to-the-home... More...

June 18, 2005

Earthlink: A Key Player in the Muni Wi-Fi Movement?

Earthlink, which has always been on the hunt for ways to offer competitive services in a broadband market dominated by cable and telephone companies, could emerge as a leading player in the “municipal Wi-Fi” movement. According to the Wall Street... More...

June 16, 2005

NJ Telco TV Franchise Bill Delayed Until November

As reported by Multichannel News: A franchise-reform bill backed by Verizon Communications Inc. is now unlikely to hit the floor of the New Jersey legislature until after November’s gubernatorial election. Verizon spokesman Rich Young is quoted as saying that: [A]... More...

June 13, 2005

Sessions Comes Under Criticism for Financial Conflict of Interest

Citing financial disclosure forms for 2003, Media Citizen’s Tim Karr claims that Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) owns more than $500,000 in SBC stock, as well as stock in other telcos including AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon. Sessions recently introduced a bill... More...

June 8, 2005

Darkweb: We Need More Broadband Networks, And Fast.

Noting that “[t]he likelihood of a broad re-write of the [Telecom] act passing the House this year is about the same as the Nationals’ chance of winning the World Series,” Darkweb’s Mark Del Bianco says “Congress ought to be focused... More...

June 7, 2005

Nebraska Bans Muni-Broadband

Nebraska’s Governor has signed into law a bill that prohibits municipalities and public power utilities from providing both wholesale and retail broadband, Internet, telecommunications or video services. Unlike other states that have placed various conditions on muni-broadband initiatives, the Nebraska... More...

June 3, 2005

Municipal Broadband: Let's Define Our Terms

Carol Wilson of Telephony reports that “A former SBC Communications employee, now a Texas congressman,” has introduced an anti-muni bill in the U.S. Congress. The bill, entitled “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005,” was introduced 5/26 by Rep. Pete... More...