In a great post, Sascha Meinrath, a fellow Community Wireless proponent talks about the “Pros of Community Networks”:1.
If Universal Access is a key component of a community’s mission, then it can be achieved 3 ways:
# *Via laws and regulation* — This is the least likely to succeed, since laws change, and can often times be trumped by state and federal legislation. National or even local for-profit companies are very good at fighting against such laws, both politically and via public opinion.
# *Via subsidies and tax breaks/credits* — This is expensive. Consider what it might cost in terms of tax dollars to convince a for-profit company to provide universal access. The company is in a position of power, in this case, and the price that a community will pay is proportional to how much they want the service. This is standard supply/demand economics.
# *Via municipal networks* — This may or may not be expensive, and has clear benefits over the medium and long term (as well as other benefits above).
The key here is that muni-networks are very often (always?) cheaper than the alternative, which is #2. Also, such projects (a) keep money in the local economy, and (b) creates local jobs, whereas solution #2 (and #1 for that matter) moves money out of the community.
The clear fiscally responsible choice for universal access is a muni-network, assuming that a sound plan for the operation of the network is created.
[1]http://www.saschameinrath.com/node/165
Filed under: Community Wireless, Muniwireless, NYCwireless, Urban Wireless
