Wireless (and Wired) Minneapolis

Reason #6: Better Prices, Faster Connections
October 5, 2005

Minneapolis should learn from Moorhead, where the prices of cable and DSL Internet connections went down even before the municipally owned, citywide WiFi network went fully live today. “After [Moorhead] announced its plans, prices of cable and DSL in the city dropped from highs of $40 to $60 a month to under $30,” reports Leslie Brooks Suzukamo in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

GoMoorhead! subscribers pay $20 per month for a 1 Mbps symmetrical (both download and upload) Internet connection, which can be used anywhere in Moorhead. The upload speed is three to four times faster than is typical for Internet connections sold by cable and phone companies. This is particularly important for small businesses and others who use the Internet professionally.

Reason #5: To Renew Citizens’ Confidence in Minneapolis’ Decision Making Process 

Minneapolis is moving toward approving a privately owned citywide broadband network without having done its homework.  Despite having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, no information is available that explains to its households and businesses why that decision was made and what types of alternative ownership structures are available.

Compare this non-transparent and information-scarce decision-making process with that used by Saint Louis Park. More...

Reason #4: Ending False and Misleading Advertising

The FCC has ruled that a community served by only two information providers (the cable company and the phone company) will have real competition. But customers are rapidly discovering that when private companies have a virtual monopoly, competition doesn’t result in lower prices or better services. Instead, the full-page newspaper ads inviting customers to take advantage of the companies’ new deals resemble the old bait and switch game. More...

Reason #3: Public Access on a Municipal Wireless Network is Close to a Free Lunch

Costis Toregas, retired president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization Public Technology Inc., says citywide wireless Internet "comes as close to a free lunch as I've ever seen in my years watching technology." Cities need the fiber optic backbone for municipal communications. Wireless creates a low-cost communications system for everything from police reporting to meter reading to video surveillance. Once the network is built, it can easily provide free or low-cost Internet access to residents and businesses. More...

Reason #2: Public-Private Partnerships Put the Private Partner in the Position of Protecting Public Profits
(Say that five times fast...)

Last month, the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) ordered airlines to shut down free wireless Internet access in their frequent flier lounges. This came after for-fee access was introduced in the airport ($7.95 per day), offered by a private company under contract with Massport. Continental Airlines petitioned the FCC to rule on whether Massport’s ban violates the Over-the-Air-Reception-Devices rules, which prohibit certain restrictions on the use of antennas used to receive and transmit wireless signals. More...

Reason #1: Hermiston, OR (and Hundreds of Others) Did It

More and more stories in national news outlets are discussing community-based innovations in high-speed communications. The latest is Nicholas Kristof , who describes his delight at discovering that residents and travelers in eastern Oregon have free access to high speed Internet, even while cruising down the road at 70 miles per hour. More...