MuniWireless

U.S. Representative Pete Sessions of Dallas has just introduced federal legislation to ban municipal broadband networks nationally. HR 2726 (ironically named “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005″) would give the local phone company veto power over any municipal projects they don’t like.

View the proposed legislation here. We all knew this was going to happen. The telcos are not going to sit back and let the recent deaths of anti-muni bills stop their campaign to deprive people of choice.…

Adina Levin tells me that Texas House Bill 789 and Senate Bill 743 have died because the Senate and the House could not reconcile the two proposed bills. HB 789 was the telecommunications deregulation bill. Representative Phil King said the House and Senate could not come to a compromise on the statewide franchise for telecommunications services, which the House favored and the Senate did not. SB 743 is the electric bill and again no agreement on that because they had…

Monticello, Florida is getting a citywide wireless broadband network after all. Charlie Colvin, the city’s Technical Services engineer, had been worried over the past few months that the Florida bill (which initially contained anti-municipal broadband provisions) would derail the city’s project. To view details of the RFP, which I posted on Muniwireless on 25 February 2005, click here.

However, with the worst provisions stripped out of the bill, Monticello can go ahead and roll out the network. The city council…

Attention community wireless activists! Free Press and CUWIN have launched a CommunityInternet.us to provide you with information on how to set up an inexpensive wireless network in your community, how to fund your network, and the kinds of applications you can run on it.

Here’s what the website says:

Imagine a community networking system that any municipality, company, or group of neighbors could easily set up themselves. No need for expensive, proprietary equipment; no need to pay for incredibly expensive…

The Boston Globe reports that a group of local residents and officials in Newton, Massachusetts have put together a plan that would save the city money and improve efficiency. They issued a report in which they recommended the creation of a municipal power company and the deployment of a citywide wireless broadband network, among others. The group believes the city could gain $10 million in revenue and cost savings per year.

Read more about the Newton plan here.

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Smart Mobs has an interesting post about a company called Skyhook Wireless, whose software allows for location-based tracking within citywide Wi-Fi networks. The company claims that their Wi-Fi Positioning System can track persons and objects (such as vehicles). According to Smart Mobs:Smart Mobs has an interesting post about a company called Skyhook Wireless, whose software allows for location-based tracking within citywide Wi-Fi networks. The company claims that their Wi-Fi Positioning System can track persons and objects (such as vehicles). According…