Harrisburg, Pa. — Philadelphia’s plan to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a municipal service — the most ambitious yet by a major U.S. city — has collided with commercial interests including the local phone company, Verizon Communications Inc.
Regional and long-distance phone companies, who sell broadband Internet to consumers and businesses, have in recent months intensified a national campaign to quash municipal wireless initiatives like Philadelphia’s as dozens of cities and towns have either begun or announced such plans — from San Francisco to Chaska, Minn., to St. Cloud, Fla.

Telecommunications companies are doubly worried because hundreds of other municipalities provide broadband service over cable or telephone lines.

The idea of cheap, municipally provided Internet as a social leveler is particularly appealing to big city politicians.

«We looked at it as a way to be a city, literally, of the 21st century,» said Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. «We wanted to bridge the digital divide for residents who wouldn’t have access to the Internet, particularly schoolchildren.»

Plus, the service could help make Philadelphia «hip» enough to stem the exodus of college graduates, she said.

But the telecom industry calls such public-sector projects unfair competition.

A chief complaint: a city can draw on taxpayer dollars, while a private company has to pay interest on borrowed capital.

Consumer advocates say cheap Wi-Fi fills a need the private sector has no intention of meeting.

«They’re saying, ’You provide it to any place we can’t or won’t, but you can’t charge a fee,»’ said Edward Schwartz, a member of Philadelphia’s wireless task force. «How does that work?»

By Marc Levy
Associated Press