Under the category of they-said-it-couldn’t-be-done, a number of cities around the world are painting their metropolitan areas with wi-fi. A recent article in the October 15, 20004 edition of Time highlighted Spokane Washington’s success at creating a free hot-zone of 100 square city bocks. Now there's a disruptive technology.
Ubiquitous free wi-fi has the potential to create a lot of winners and losers. The potential winners will be the citizens and government employees who will be able to get voice and data information they need, when and where they need it. The potential losers will be the commercial communications carriers of both voice and data.
Whether you measure it in terms of money or personal productivity, the stakes of this game are huge. There is no question that the always on everywhere Internet is just a technology step away. The only question is who is going to provide it. One scenario has government entities building out a wi-fi infrastructure just like they build roads, airports, and harbors. The Internet is becoming as important to the wheels of commerce as any of these traditional transports.
But what would that do to the muti-trillion dollar telecommunications industry? What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? Lots of sparks. It’s important that with all of this sparking that we as citizens do not allow governments and telecommunications lobbyists to strike a deal to slow down or kill ubiquitous free wi-fi. Anything less than free always on everywhere Internet will place our society at a distinct innovation and economic disadvantage to the haves.
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