PHILADELPHIA HAS JUST ANNOUNCED FULL ACCESS, FREE WIFI in a two-year project covering 135 square miles of the city.
Connectivity is one of my pet issues — broadband deployment, the rural/urban digital divide, the information commons, all of that.
As the U.S. government and Federal Communications Commission screw over AT&T, Sprint, and other long distance carriers who were providing innovative bundled communications services that depended on wholesale access to regional Bells’ infrastructure, I think that the rate of investment in broadband will slow and prices for many types of access will rise, in contrast to the fall in prices we’ve seen over the last decade.
Michael Powell, a very dull bulb as Chairman of the FCC (and Colin Powell’s son), seems intent on getting on some boards of directors of lucrative monopolies like Verizon, SBC, and Bell South in the future.
I will be writing more on this new age of corporate monopolies that is emerging as the government undoes the 1996 Telecommunications Act — but in the meantime, I want to commend the City of Philadelphia for making it easier for its blogging moms, data dads, kids, and other citizens like me to get on line easily. I do not live in Philadelphia — but from here on out I plan to visit frequently.
What is it with this Seattle city official who isn’t sure that the tax dollars are worth it? (see New York Times article) And he can justify all of Seattle’s tax revenue financed sports stadiums? Seattle may be losing some of its edge.
— Steve Clemons
