Are Peoria's Cable negotiations being threatened?
CNet has a nice little article concerning a looming struggle as to whether cities should be in the business of selling or giving away for free, ISP services. Several cities have explored this and in a few cases implemented 'hotspots' in direct competition with private communications companies. The triggering event for this dispute was when Philadelphia announced plans to build a Wi-Fi network covering most of the city, 135 square miles, for a mere $10 million. The service would be available for a minimal fee or even free. The local baby bell cried foul and the fight was on.
This leads to a bill (HR 2726) pending in Congress, which could have an effect on Peoria. The bill, introduced by Pete Sessions of Texas, would prevent cities from getting into the telecomminications business. The wording of the bill is as follows:
It would seem this goes way beyond just ISP services.... like cable TV?
As reported by Peoria Pundit and CJ Summers, Peoria will soon be in renegotiations with Insight, over local cable services. Many feel the rates are a bit high and there are other service issues. One of the leveraging points in this renegotiation is that the city has the option of starting its own cable company. The city of Peoria currently does not offer cable services and it would be very expensive to start one up. However, it would seem that this bill, should it pass, would prevent the city from ever starting such a service, thus forfeiting an important leveraging point to keep rates down.
On another note... when I first heard about Philedelphia's plans to build a wi-fi network across the entire city, I mentioned it to some tech savvy friends. We all thought it would be an excellent idea and a perfect fit for the Med-Tech district. Peoria is 44 square miles? About a third of the area Philly is planning to cover. So a third of the cost? Two, three, four million? So for the cost of a parking garage, or less, we could cover all of Peoria. Which would benefit the citizens of Peoria more? Wi-Fi for all or a parking garage for a few doctors? With WiMax just around the corner, I can only imagine the start up costs going down. One WiMax tower has a theoretical range of 30 miles versus the 4-6 miles of a typical boosted cell.
This leads to a bill (HR 2726) pending in Congress, which could have an effect on Peoria. The bill, introduced by Pete Sessions of Texas, would prevent cities from getting into the telecomminications business. The wording of the bill is as follows:
`(1) PROHIBITION- Effective 60 days after the date of enactment of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, neither any State or local government, nor any entity affiliated with such a government, shall provide any telecommunications, telecommunications service, information service, or cable service in any geographic area within the jurisdiction of such government in which a corporation or other private entity that is not affiliated with any State or local government is offering a substantially similar service.
`(2) GRANDFATHER PROVISION- Paragraph (1) shall not prohibit a State or local government or affiliated entity thereof from providing in any geographic area within the jurisdiction of such government any service that such government or entity was providing on the date of enactment of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005.'.
It would seem this goes way beyond just ISP services.... like cable TV?
As reported by Peoria Pundit and CJ Summers, Peoria will soon be in renegotiations with Insight, over local cable services. Many feel the rates are a bit high and there are other service issues. One of the leveraging points in this renegotiation is that the city has the option of starting its own cable company. The city of Peoria currently does not offer cable services and it would be very expensive to start one up. However, it would seem that this bill, should it pass, would prevent the city from ever starting such a service, thus forfeiting an important leveraging point to keep rates down.
On another note... when I first heard about Philedelphia's plans to build a wi-fi network across the entire city, I mentioned it to some tech savvy friends. We all thought it would be an excellent idea and a perfect fit for the Med-Tech district. Peoria is 44 square miles? About a third of the area Philly is planning to cover. So a third of the cost? Two, three, four million? So for the cost of a parking garage, or less, we could cover all of Peoria. Which would benefit the citizens of Peoria more? Wi-Fi for all or a parking garage for a few doctors? With WiMax just around the corner, I can only imagine the start up costs going down. One WiMax tower has a theoretical range of 30 miles versus the 4-6 miles of a typical boosted cell.
posted by Mahkno at 9:57 AM
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