Cleveland Opts For Muni Wi-Fi

By DAVID SIMS

TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

… and Cleveland gets it. In more ways than one.

The Willoughby, Ohio News-Herald is reporting that city-wide Wi-Fi for Greater Cleveland is coming soon. This is part of a national trend this reporter can't praise too highly, that of municipalities providing wi-fi.

In recent days Tempe, Arizona held an official celebration to mark the fact that it's decided to provide wireless Internet access citywide for its 160,000 residents in February. New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Ohio's own Akron and Cuyahoga Falls have municipal wi-fi projects in the works.

There are about 32,000 wireless hotspots across the United States, and while the vast majority charge a fee, "the trend, however, appears to be headed in the direction of free access," the newspaper writes.

Ryan MacCarthy, co-founder of MetroFreeFi.com tells the News-Herald his Web site's list of free spots has grown from 2,000 to 8,000 in 2005. It's seen as a way for a city to improve its citizens' business opportunities and lure more high-tech savvy businesses to the city.

"A city with abundant free Wi-Fi access has an economic edge over neighboring cities," MacCarthy tells the News-Herald. "For example, a business lunch can be more productive in a downtown with free Wi-Fi access."

San Francisco's request for proposals was intended to lead to city-wide free access, and New Orleans has also made its network free. Most other cities, though, are charging modes fees for access.

Tempe officials say ubiquitous wi-fi will “attract more technology and biotech companies – and the young, upwardly mobile employees they bring,” according to the AP.

Philadelphia’s working on a citywide high-speed system with EarthLink Inc., the town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is covering large parts of the city with municipal wi-fi. Aurora, Illinois and dozens of other medium-sized municipalities across America are talking about them.

A bill in Congress which would make it illegal for municipalities to offer wi-fi, sponsored by one of the telecom industry's favorite Congressmen, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas.

Sessions’s bill is titled “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005 (HR 2726),” and it would bar state and local governments “from providing any telecommunications or information service that is ‘substantially similar’ to services provided by private companies.”

Sessions is a former Southwestern Bell exec who got over $200,000 from the industry in his last election, and has gotten just under half a million dollars over his Congressional career from them, with SBC-associated donors alone kicking in over $74,000 during his five terms. And as Rich Tehrani notes, he still holds half a million dollars in SBC stock options, as well as financial interest in Verizon and Bell South, all of whom – along with Sessions – would profit greatly from killing muni wi-fi.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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