The city of Denver plans on building a 52-square-mile wifi network even though the state of Colorado has passed a law ( SB 152) making it illegal for municipalities to offer telecommunications services. (Pennsylvania passed a similar law after Philadelphia announced its plans to provide muni-wifi, but the bill exempts cities that began within a particular, short deadline.) It seems that Denver will use the network for its own city services, at least initially cutting off public access to it because the Denver legislature is owned by Qwest.

During the Howard Dean campaign, some on the informal board of advisors on tech policy argued fiercely that, on free market principles, the government shouldn’t even give incentives to provide broadband to underserved parts of the nation. I disagreed then and I disagree now. (By the way, this shows you just how much Howard Dean supporters were all a bunch of socialist, anti-capitalist, commie bastards.)

I accept that any networking service that a municipality provides is likely to be less than optimal. The government will make the wrong choices about the technology, how to deploy it, how to charge for it, and how to maintain/upgrade/retire it. Governments just aren’t as smart as markets are about these things. But I still like muni-wifi for three reasons:

First, having ubiquitous, always-on connections available throughout a city adds a layer of infrastructure — information and connectedness — that may have transformative social effects.

Second, having that infrastructure available regardless of the area’s economic status may have transformative economic effects.

Third, it is not incompatible with offerings from the free market.* If Qwest, say, has a better product — more bandwidth, better service, better security, etc. — then the market will be willing to pay for it. If the municipality can’t keep its network up to date, then let Qwest make money charging for the latest and the greatest.

Bring on the muni-wifi! [Technorati tags: wifi denver]

*For the moment we’re pretending that telecommunication services are offered in a free market. Haha.

Categories: Uncategorized dw