Sewage Dumps and Internet Outages

The Mayor of San Francisco has ignited a debate about citywide wi-fi as a public service. In a petition for bids, he stated,

"It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information".

This is just the tip of the iceberg:

[Mayor]Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services.

Many companies have jumped at the opportunity to help the city provide access, including Google, who is even offering to set up the access for free. Maybe we should look beyond the rosy facade of free (read "paid for with taxes") internet. The problem is that entire wi-fi system will still be municipally owned and operated. Have we not already learned our lesson on government owned utilities? Private industry is already competing to provide this service and the costs are continually going down (albeit not as fast as they will be if we pass telecommunications reform).

I already wait on hold for hours with Time Warner, how long do you think it will take to get service from The Huge Government Bureaucracy for Internet Management, especially after they have made all competitors irrelevant by funding the service with tax dollars? Milwaukee can't even manage it's sewer system why would we trust them with our internet? The small park hot spots are one thing but a citywide network is a whole different set of problems.

I will have to take the free market approach and respectfully disagree with Mike over at New Milwaukee and others, municipal internet service is just another program that will increase our dependence on government bureaucracy.

Cross-posted at GOP3.com: The Triumvirate