Craig Settles, perhaps the best-known advocate of
municipal broadband, published a report today that outlines many of the
positive aspects of municipal wireless. Mr. Settles, president of Successful.com, invites commentators such
as yours truly who have called Muni WiFi a fiasco to take a look at eight U.S.
cities where municipal broadband has been successful. (see Muni WiFi No Mas?)
The report basically expands the municipal communications
horizon beyond WiFi. It includes wired communications such as fiber in Loma Linda,
California and variants of wireless communications other than WiFi in
Providence, Rhode Island.
The report sets new pragmatic goals for municipal
broadband, and ratchets down the old ambitious goals of social and economic inclusion.
“Affordable broadband for all” is replaced by more achievable targets such as public
safety through better communications. Mr. Settles and the people he interviewed
do not completely lose sight of social inclusion -- a goal I share -- but they
have been chastened by recent events.
The report also promotes partnerships between carriers
and municipalities.
By way of full disclosure: I have known Mr. Settles for
much longer than I care to admit, and I consider him a friend. But we differed
on Muni WiFi. I thought Muni WiFi was a bad idea from the start. I think local governments
and quasi-governmental groups such as public utilities should not be involved
in the business of delivering commercial telecom services to consumers -- for
the most part.
There are exceptions of course such as municipalities
where consumers are under-served by commercial carriers or where carrier services
are too expensive and can be delivered more inexpensively by municipalities.
Also, WiFi at this stage is far too expensive a wide-area
communications vehicle to involve municipalities. Perhaps broadband over power
lines might be a better vehicle, but the development of that technology has
been retarded by public utilities - - bolstering the case for municipal exclusion.
But Mr. Settles makes a
solid case for municipal broadband in his report which can be found here www.successful.com/snapshot-10-07-temp.doc.