Broadband still a local concern

BROADBAND STILL A LOCAL CONCERN
[SOURCE: GCN Insider, AUTHOR: Patrick Marshall]
If the federal government hadn’t stepped in to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s, it’s unlikely that the country’s subsequent economic boom would have been as robust as it was. It is equally important, some say, that government get involved in building broadband infrastructure. It seems the federal government isn’t going to step in, so municipal governments would be well advised to pick up the slack. At least that’s the recommendation of Christopher Mitchell, a research associate at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit research group. “People need broadband so badly,” Mitchell said. “To just sit around and say, ‘Well, we should rely on someone else to bring it in and keep us competitive with other cities in the region,’ that’s not really a good policy for a city that is trying to encourage economic development.” Many cities have in recent years initiated programs to provide public Wi-Fi, and although a number of them have given up those programs, Mitchell said, cities shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Offering free Wi-Fi is not the only model cities should consider, nor is it the most likely to be self-sustaining, he said. “There have been some cases in which people have gotten into trouble by offering free services [without] having enough revenues from somewhere to cover it.” A recent ILSR report written by Mitchell warns against relying on private service providers.
http://www.gcn.com/print/27_4/45836-1.html