[CWN-Summit] Re: Mayor prorosed giving away public resources for ATT "free" wifi

[Michael Oh]

Ben,

Mike Oh here from Boston - just some quick background:  I was there  
in St Louis as well last year, I run one a public WiFi network in  
Boston - NewburyOpen.net, and was on the Mayor's Committee in Boston  
that analyzed the feasibility of WiFi in the City of terrorism- 
paranoid-people-that-don't-know-the-difference-between-bombs-and- 
advertising.

But one thing that we've done our homework on is WiFi and the  
tradeoffs that cities make to implement "free" WiFi with large  
providers like AT&T.

Me and 24 other city residents, business owners, and academic folks  
worked to put this report together...

http://www.cityofboston.gov/wireless/

Our conclusion is that what the Mayor of St Louis is doing is a very  
bad idea, for exactly all the reasons that you've mentioned.

Letting AT&T be the sole provider of the network - including owning,  
operating, and defining end-user pricing - and giving them control  
over a valuable public asset - the right to poles - is only going to  
end up with disappointed residents.  If there is an agreement, there  
should be very specific (and quite stringent) policies regarding end- 
user service levels for the "free" users - but chances are even then,  
a provider with sole control over the network will try to push the  
limits of the agreement.  They do this because they know that a city  
will most likely not take them to court to enforce the agreement, no  
matter how bad it may get.

The incumbents a while ago realized that they would have a lot more  
success duping city governments to handing over public assets rather  
than stopping municipal WiFi networks in court.

So, in summary, if you don't see the details, that probably means  
that the Mayor didn't bother working them out - and AT&T assured them  
that they would just fill in the details for the city.  I would be  
very aggressive in trying to get the city to see this, for the sake  
of the residents of St. Louis.

Now, I do qualify this by saying that the Boston model - based on the  
establishment of a non-profit organization that forces structural  
separation between the wholesale and retail sides of the network -  
has not been proven either.  If anything, our ideas have slowed the  
progress in Boston while the city has to try to find the funding to  
make the model work.  But we do feel confident that, even if slow,  
the Boston approach (or any similar approach that double-checks all  
the details) is still better in the end.

Hope that helps,
Mike

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