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News :: Civil & Human Rights : Elections & Legislation : Media : Political-Economy : UCIMC : Urban Development |
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Verizon Attacking Public Wireless Networks; NPR Report Notes CUWiN Has Alternative Model |
Current rating: 0 |
by via ML
(No verified email address) |
29 Nov 2004
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National Public Radio story includes comments from Sascha Meinrath on situation brought about by corporate efforts to manipulate wireless initiatives in Pennsylvania |
From the Monday, Nov. 29 edition of NPR's All Things Considered:
"Philadelphia wants to hook up the entire city with high-speed, wireless Internet access in order to spur economic development. But Verizon has successfully backed a state bill that would make it illegal for any government entity in to compete with the telecom company in providing high-speed Internet service. NPR's Larry Abramson reports."
Listen at the link below. Follow it and page down until you come to the story, "Verizon Attempts to Block City's Move to Provide Internet Access." The link provides listening options for either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. |
See also:
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=29-Nov-2004&prgId=2
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Related stories on this site:
Free Wi-Fi Services Spearheaded By Network Execs
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Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
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Greed Beats Speed: Pennsylvania Limits Cities in Offering Net Access |
by Matt Richtel
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
01 Dec 2004
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in a victory for Verizon Communications, a measure in a new Pennsylvania law will make it harder for cities to build high-speed Internet networks that compete with major telecommunications providers.
The measure, part of a broad telecommunications law that was signed late Tuesday by Gov. Edward G. Rendell, has been watched closely by telephone companies and cities across the country. The industry and municipal governments have increasingly found themselves at odds, as cities try to spur the growth of high-speed Internet access by building their own networks - often in competition with the dominant local phone company.
Under the new law's Internet provision, cities in Pennsylvania that want to build their own high-speed data networks must first give the main local phone company the right to build such a network within 14 months. If the phone company proceeds, the city must drop its plans to build a broadband network.
Governor Rendell, a Democrat, signed the law despite his objections to the municipal Internet provision, said David Myers, the governor's deputy chief of staff. Mr. Myers said the governor, while generally favoring the overall legislation, thought the provision could hamper the ability of residents to have high-speed Internet access and, in turn, could make those cities less economically competitive.
"We've got municipalities that are not being served by broadband," Mr. Myers said. "This precludes them from one option" for obtaining it.
But Verizon, by far the state's dominant telephone company, asserted that the provision was essential for it to compete.
Under the law, the dominant telecommunications provider in a region is required to provide high-speed Internet access across its territories over the next decade. In Verizon's case, such access must be made available by 2013, Mr. Myers said.
Eric Rabe, a spokesman for Verizon, said that if cities could also build networks, Verizon could effectively be required to construct a network that would compete with a municipal network subsidized with tax dollars and offered at lower prices.
"They're asking us to jump in the pool," he said. "We want to make sure there's some water in there."
Mr. Rabe said the provision might actually give cities greater leverage, by permitting them to force Verizon and other dominant telecommunications companies to hurry up their broadband efforts or step aside.
Just before the legislation was signed, Verizon removed a potential sticking point by agreeing not to block an effort already under way by the city of Philadelphia to build its own wireless high-speed network. Philadelphia plans to spend $10 million to $12 million to provide Wi-Fi access throughout the city. The system is already operating in an area of about two square miles.
For now, the service is free. But eventually, Philadelphia plans to charge residents $15 to $25 a month for access, said Dianah Neff, the city's chief information officer. Ms. Neff said the city was building the network because it thought that such high-speed access was essential to keep the community modern and economically competitive.
But critics say that other Pennsylvania cities will not have the same ability now, and they say that the issue extends beyond the borders of the state.
Gerard L. Lederer, a lawyer for the National League of Cities, said a growing number of cities want to build their own networks, in some cases for city business and in other cases to sell or give away access to residents.
Ron Sege, the chief executive of Tropos Networks, the company providing equipment for Philadelphia to deploy its Wi-Fi network, said Tropos was working with 100 other cities to build such networks.
Mr. Lederer said telecommunications companies were using political influence to block municipalities' efforts, typically at a state level. "We've seen a significant increase in the last year to outright ban or place prohibitions on the municipal efforts," Mr. Lederer said.
He said the telecommunications companies had stepped up their efforts in the last year, after a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States. In that case, Mr. Lederer said, the court interpreted existing law in a way that gives municipalities less authority than they had hoped to have in building telecommunications networks.
The concern of telecommunications companies, while not new, has taken on newfound vigor in the era of wireless communications. In the past, some cities sought to build wire line networks, digging up the streets and laying down fiber optic cables, but they can now build wireless networks far less expensively.
Mr. Myers, the deputy chief of staff for Governor Rendell, said he expected the issue that arose in Pennsylvania to "play out a lot of places."
But the Pennsylvania solution may not wind up as a national template - at least as it is now worded. Mr. Myers predicted that the language of the provision could well lead to lawsuits.
Under the measure, a local telecommunications provider has the right of first refusal if a city wants to build its own telecommunications network.
But, Mr. Myers said, the language of the law is so vague that it is not clear whether the telecommunications provider would have to use the technology favored by the city, like wireless Internet access, or whether it could provide Internet access using a different technology.
"We're going to have litigation over the language," Mr. Myers said. "It is subject to interpretation."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com |
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Fast Internet Service for The People: Telecoms Fight Plans For Public Networks |
by Jonathan Krim
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Dec 2004
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For the millions of people who cannot afford high-speed Internet access, some local officials think they've hit on the answer: Build government-owned networks to provide service at rates below what big telecommunications companies charge.
From San Francisco to St. Cloud, Fla., an estimated 200 communities are toying with community-owned networks, sparking a battle with cable and telephone companies over how public, or private, access to the Internet should be.
Philadelphia wants to expand its public Internet service. A state law, supported by Verizon Communications, may prevent other cities from doing likewise.
The companies are lobbying furiously to block such plans, fearful that their businesses would be hurt. Their efforts most recently paid off Tuesday night in Pennsylvania, where a new law bans local governments from creating their own networks without first giving the primary local phone company the chance to provide service.
Consumer advocates denounce the new Pennsylvania law. They say it amounts to governments now needing a permission slip from entrenched monopolies to put a vital economic and educational tool within everyone's reach.
For them, government has a long history of providing essential public services, such as national highways or electricity in rural areas.
"The Internet . . . is a true global public utility," said Jeffrey Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocate for consumer rights online. "We should be trying to provide it for free."
At least, they argue, community networks should be able to give the large companies some competition. In a February survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 24 percent of U.S. adults said they had high-speed Internet access at home. About half of those had incomes of more than $75,000 a year.
Harold J. Feld, associate director of the Media Access Project, a consumer-media advocacy group, said a phone or cable company could always come in and provide a wireless network, competing on price and service with any municipal offering.
"But who gets to decide what municipalities can do?" Feld said. "Will it be corporations?"
In some cases, governments acted out of concern that spotty service from commercial providers in rural areas might be inhibiting economic growth. Allegany County in western Maryland is building a high-speed wireless network that will be available for homes and businesses.
Companies such as Verizon Communications Inc., which helped shape the Pennsylvania law, argue that telecommunications firms would have little incentive to build networks if they have to compete with government-subsidized service.
Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe noted that the company is under state mandate to deploy high-speed access to customers in all of its Pennsylvania territory by 2015.
"If we should be asked to do that, we should be able to make a business of it," he said, and not compete with governments that can borrow money to build out a system more cheaply and can tax residents to pay for the service.
The new law forces local governments to give the local phone carrier first shot at providing wireless service if a locality intends to charge for it. If the service is going to be free, the law does not apply.
But Beth McConnell, director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group, said it is unreasonable to think that a government would be able to offer service for nothing.
In last-minute negotiations before the bill was signed late Tuesday by Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D), the law was changed to allow systems operating before January 2006 to proceed.
That language, and a separate deal with Verizon, will enable Philadelphia to move forward with plans for a citywide wireless network, the largest such experiment in the country.
"Just like roads and transportation were keys to our past, a digital infrastructure and wireless technology are keys to our future," Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street said in September when he announced the plan.
Although residents would still have to own computers, the typical $30 to $50 monthly cost of high-speed Internet access from commercial services would be reduced. No details have been decided.
In the borough of Kutztown, Pa., local officials built a fiber-optic network in 2000, following the path of the power lines that also are owned by the town.
Today, Internet service at speeds faster than those generally provided by phone and cable companies is available to residents and businesses beginning at $15 a month. The system also provides cable television service. More than 500 residents take advantage of the system.
Frank P. Caruso, the town's director of information technology, said he feels sorry for communities that will not be able to meet the 2006 deadline and thus be forced to deal with Verizon first.
"They don't realize that their throats have just been cut," Caruso said. "It's almost like Verizon is Big Brother." Caruso said that after the town began offering cable television service, the private provider dropped its price by 40 percent to compete.
In signing the legislation, Rendell said that he was concerned about the new restrictions on public networks but that other parts of the bill involving telecommunications were too important to derail.
Among them are financial incentives for Verizon to accelerate plans to expand broadband access around the state.
The law will be closely watched around the country, where phone and cable companies are pressuring state legislatures to limit what municipalities can do. According to MuniWireless.com, an online newsletter that tracks community-based wireless projects, 14 states have passed some type of legislation limiting what municipalities can do.
In Illinois, meanwhile, SBC Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. teamed up twice to defeat ballot measures that would have allowed three towns to create a fiber-optic network to provide telecommunications and cable television services.
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