Faced with defeat in most state legislatures as they try to block launching of city-sponsored wireless networks for broadband Internet access, the big telecommunications companies – AT&T, BellSouth and others – appear to be backing down.
AT&T, for example, has recently responded to requests for proposals by several cities interested in starting up wireless services for their citizens and businesses. Cox Communications is involved in Arizona’s municipal Wi-Fi contract.
Could we be witnessing a rare victory for cities and citizens in an era of economic royalism, big corporations calling the tune in Washington and many state capitals? Don’t count on it, just yet, counsels Craig Settles, author of the new book “Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless,” the story of Philadelphia’s spirited effort to establish citywide, wireless broadband Internet service.
The telcos and cable executives, warns Settles, “seem genetically engineered to use heavy lobbyist pressure” to gain and hold “market dominance and competition reduction.” Just note, he adds, the charge of how BellSouth (in a move it now denies) sought to “bully” New Orleans to close down the wireless mesh network the city made available, in the wake of Katrina, as a communications tool for all who need it.
Corporate pressure to curb communities’ self-help efforts aren’t new, insists Jim Baller, a public utility lawyer. A century ago, he notes, private electric utilities, associating their new technology with “wealth, power and privilege,” insisted that rural areas would be too costly to serve. In response, more than 3,000 communities formed their own utilities, arousing corporate charges of unfair competition, “un-American” and “Bolshevik” tactics.
Later, the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration provided low- cost loans to towns and farmer cooperatives to set up their own power systems. A quarter of the country’s electricity is still generated by the remaining 2,000 municipally owned and rural electric cooperatives.
With the Internet, say Baller, Settles and others, we’re seeing history repeat itself. Broadband Internet service, suddenly emerging as the world’s premier messaging, data, business, entertainment, video and now even significant voice transmitter, is becoming “the electricity of the 21st century.” From mega- corporations to freelancers, it’s an indispensable lifeline.
For communities, it’s critical; in the words of Dianah Neff, Philadelphia’s broadband coordinator, “If broadband bypasses you, you become a ghost town.”
Most cities pushing for wireless service today are partnering with private firms to design and run their networks – EarthLink in Philadelphia, EarthLink and Google in San Francisco, for example. One big telecommunications combine, Sprint and Nextel, is working collaboratively with Henderson, Nev.
The big challenge for cities, says Settles, is to be informed, smart bargainers. Philadelphia’s Mayor John Street, for example, was originally motivated by a desire to make broadband affordable for low-income citizens and businesses in lagging parts of the city. But he created and listened to an executive steering committee broadly representative of community, business and city government interests.
Many public meetings were held, dozens of experts consulted. “Proof of concept” deployments of Wi-Fi models were tested in various neighborhoods. A detailed, precise business plan was drawn up for citywide low-cost access, forming the base for a contract with EarthLink.
The lesson is clear – governments can deliver high-quality, critically needed broadband communications systems. But they need what Settles discovered Philadelphia brought to the process – “people running the process who showed a willingness to slow down, revise, rewrite, whatever necessary to get the job done right.”
Neal Peirce’s e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.
