Iria

WASHINGTON--When cities create wireless networks, should the federal government restrict their efforts, promote them, or let individual states decide the ground rules?

That's the question politicians and industry representatives batted around during a 90-minute U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing here Tuesday afternoon.

The hearing came amid an ongoing debate over whether local governments should get into the business of offering broadband to their residents. A number of smaller towns have already started building their own networks. Those in favor of the projects argue they'll bridge the nation's digital divide and provide broadband more quickly to underserved areas.

Philadelphia, for example, sealed a deal with Internet service provider EarthLink to blanket its 135-square-mile territory with Wi-Fi. That service, scheduled to be complete by early next year, would be offered to low-income residents at subsidized rates and to everyone else at market rates, likely about $20 per month. A number of other large cities, including New York and San Francisco, have explored similar options.

But municipalities have faced considerable resistance from the big telecommunications and cable companies, such as Verizon and Comcast, which are investing billions of dollars to build networks and are worried about being undercut by government offerings. Those firms and other opponents to municipal control--including 14 state legislatures that have passed laws restricting or forbidding such efforts--say private companies are better suited than government bureaucrats to serve the public's needs.
___________
Read More / Source: News.com