Wherefore Wi-Fi?

Times stalward Nick
Kristoff joins the Wi-Fi bandwagon
and wonders why Eastern cities can’t manage what West Coast rural areas
are already doing…

Driving along the road here, I used my laptop to
get e-mail and download video
– and
you
can
do that
while
cruising
at
70
miles per hour, mile after mile after mile, at a transmission speed
several times as fast as a T-1 line. (Note: it’s preferable to do this
with someone
else driving.)

Indeed, we need to envision broadband Internet access
as just another utility, like electricity or water. Often the best
way to provide that will be to blanket a region with Wi-Fi coverage to
create
wireless computer networks, rather than running D.S.L., cable or fiber-optic
lines to every home.

This is being discussed in cities across the USA,
including
Boston.  The question comes down to what’s best for the consumers
and the local governments is not necessarily the best for the private
companies that currently provide internet access (hello, Comcast).  It
is a lot easier to install free wi-fi in a relatively un-wired rural
district, where the ISP big boys have not already put down sizable sums
and have just started milking the cash cow of hundreds of thousands of
monthly access fee checks.

Will common sense, global competitiveness and consumer
demand overrule shortsighted corporate quarterly earnings? Don’t bet
on it….

from the New York Times