Here is a story over at News.com about how the Senate is considering enforcing rules to prohibit municipalities from offering Wi-Fi. Certainly, since I am against municipal Wi-Fi, I must be attracted to such rules, yes?
Truth be told, I am tempted, but there is a greater truth here. Although I believe that municipal Wi-Fi is a government boondoggle, it is certainly not the role of the federal government to say what can and can't be done at the local level. Although a disappearance of muni Wi-Fi initiatives would cause me no tears, the feds can only wield a blunt instrument. Better that they stay out of it.
States are probably within their rights in making such prohibitions, and the federal government should not be overturning their legislatures' decisions. Muni Wi-Fi is almost certainly a market destroyer and a setback for real broadband, but let them figure that out for themselves.
Essentially, municipal Wi-Fi is politicians spending dollars on a service that the citizens themselves have chosen not to buy. Let the people decide.
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