The Wrong Way On WiFi

The following letter appeared in the New York Times today…

Re “OPEC 2.0” (Op-Ed, July 30):

We find Tim Wu’s warning of a coming “bandwidth cartel” ridiculous when you consider the rapid progress America is making in expanding better and more affordable broadband options.

A decade ago, basic DSL cost $70 a month in Pennsylvania and $90 a month in California (not adjusting for inflation). Since then, prices have plunged, while online speeds and access choices have surged.

Meanwhile, Wi-Fi spots are in virtually every coffee shop, and more than 15 million users have signed up for wireless broadband, which is also getting faster. In short, the trend is toward the opposite of a bandwidth cartel.

Equally important, maintaining a quality Internet requires sophisticated data management on the network, not just new bandwidth. Even the Japanese, with their high-speed networks, have accepted the need to manage data traffic to keep up with P2P, or peer-to-peer, file-sharing and other data-intensive applications.

Christopher Wolf
Mike McCurry
Co-chairmen
Hands Off the Internet
Washington, July 31, 2008

(By the way, I thought Wu’s column made some good points, though this post really isn’t meant to comment on what he wrote.)

For some background, I ripped into Wolf and McCurry here, noting that Hands Off The Internet is a front group that purports to support “open” Internet development, though in reality, they advocate exactly the opposite of that.

And while I don’t have enough information to contest their claim about “WiFi spots in virtually every coffee shop,” I can point out that Arriva, a Danish passenger rail service, is offering free WiFi access to its customers (the article notes various other WiFi success stories that would seem to indicate that Wolf and McCurry could be right).

However, this tells us of Philadelphia’s recent experiment with WiFi (as well as that of many other cities in this country) in which EarthLink, the Internet company that, formerly, led the way for WiFi development, ended up backing out of the venture…

EarthLink announced on Feb. 7 that “the operations of the municipal Wi-Fi assets were no longer consistent with the company’s strategic direction.” Philadelphia officials say they are not sure when or if the promised network will now be completed.

For Cesar DeLaRosa, 15, however, the concern is more specific. He said he was worried about his science project on global warming.

“If we don’t have Internet, that means I’ve got to take the bus to the public library after dark, and around here, that’s not always real safe,” Cesar said, seated in front of his family’s new computer in a gritty section of Hunting Park in North Philadelphia. His family is among the 1,000 or so low-income households that now have free or discounted Wi-Fi access through the city’s project, and many of them worry about losing access that they cannot otherwise afford.

Philadelphia officials say service will not be disconnected.

“We expect EarthLink to live up to its contract,” said Terry Phillis, the city’s chief information officer.

But when City Council leaders here held a hearing in December to question EarthLink about how it intended to keep service running and complete the planned network, the company failed to show up.

Officials in Chicago, Houston, Miami and San Francisco find themselves in a similar predicament with EarthLink and other service providers, and have all temporarily tabled their projects.

And while Wolf and McCurry are crowing about how cheap WiFi apparently is in their coffee shops, maybe they should consider the following…

Prices for Internet service on the broader market also began dropping to a level that, while above what many poor people could afford, was below what municipal Wi-Fi providers were offering, so the companies had to lower their rates even further, making investment in infrastructure even more risky, he said.

…

“The entire for-profit model is the reason for the collapse in all these projects,” said Sascha Meinrath, technology analyst at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit research organization in Washington.

It’s less difficult to develop WiFi networks in certain localities in this country and certain locations, such as mass transit venues, but to develop it in our cities takes a true public/private investment involving all levels of government.

However, Barack Obama had better be careful if he makes any statements on this, or else Wired Magazine will manufacture or clip another quote saying Obama claims to be “the father of WiFi,” not unlike this mess.

Meanwhile…

Back in Philadelphia, Cesar’s older sister, Tomasa DeLaRosa, said she had faith that city officials would find a way to finish the network and keep her Internet service going.

“Our whole house is totally different now,” said Ms. DeLaRosa, 19, who had never had Internet access at home until last December because she could not afford it.

After signing up for a job training program and completing its course work, Ms. DeLaRosa received a free laptop, training and a year’s worth of free wireless service from Esparanza, a community group.

…

“For us and a lot of people in this neighborhood,” Ms. DeLaRosa said, “the Internet is like a path out of here.”

Of course, it would be nice if Wolf and McCurry, in addition to dropping their idiotic opposition to Net Neutrality, would actually encourage partnerships and investments in an effort to better the lives of the DeLaRosas and others in their circumstances instead of shilling for those who care only about the profit motive instead.

Short of that, though, maybe they’d help Tomasa DeLaRosas to get a job in one of their coffee shops, since, apparently, that’s the only way that she’ll have reliable WiFi access.

Update: And by the way (speaking of technology), K.O. had something about this in a "Bushed" segment last week on "Countdown" - more "under the radar" Big Brotherism by Bushco.