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Survey Says: US needs Wireless Networks

Category:  Laws & Regulations > Municipal Broadband Policy Debate

Well, I'm still learning how to do on-line polls, and I should have changed this one out earlier. My last survey resulted in a rather predictable result to the question of "What is the most important role that Wi Fi networks could play in the next hurricane?", producing an overwhelming response that proved in fact, to be rather underwhelming in meaning. The way I wrote the poll, it was a predictable result that faced with the choices below, my very intelligent readers chose the best answer, "YES, we'll take all of that, thank you very much." First responder communication stood out among alternative responses, leaving the seven dwarfs polling about the same.

*All of the Above 64%
*Helping first responders communicate 18%
*Providing security video to stop looting
*Helping power companies get power turned back on
*Connecting survivors with their loved ones
*Providing survivors with Internet Access
*Providing alternative telecommunications via VOIP
*Putting businesses back to work with Internet connectivity
*Coordination of evacuees

What does this mean? In writing that poll, I intended to highlight all the value that wireless municipal networks would provide an area hit by a disaster, man-made or natural. But choosing among the alternatives is silly because such a general purpose network makes ALL of these solutions available. That's one aspect that makes wireless broadband networks so valuable and timely - a city is not forced to choose between several valid alternatives - the city can have it all with an affordable, modular, scalable general purpose network.

Caught up in the trauma in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina (visceral images of flooding and devastation on TV) and Rita (empty grocery store shelves in Austin, my hometown), I blogged considerably in September and into October on the value of these networks to help our response to such disasters. I was not alone.

Consider Reed Hundt, former FCC Chairman and now outspoken proponent of a national broadband network, who wrote one month ago in the San Jose Mercury News on our exposed position Limits on wireless leave U.S. at risk

Seriously folks, would you put the safety of your home and family - all your eggs - into the incumbent basket and risk a repeat of the New Orleans debacle? Consider this evidence before you answer. Investigate the priorities of the incumbents v. the priorities of the cities. I wrote about former monopolies a couple of weeks ago UnwireMyCity.com: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks? and then there was this commentary that echoed my thoughts Is Voice Just Another App?

Does the service provider in the article have your town's best interests at heart, or the nation's, for that matter? Or (no slam intended here, just fact) does a large investor-owned corporation put its focus on providing benefits back to its investors - the all-important ROI? (As a stockholder, I personally believe that such focus is appropriate, but that some attention must also be paid to the role a corporation plays as a good citizen - we need balance). So let ATT (the new name is now in effect!) be ATT, and let the 21st Century alternatives have their day as well. I trust the maket will let the system find its own harmonic balance of benefits for corporations, government, and the body public, IF Congress does its job right.

Big if..while Congress deliberates, I encourage cities and towns to get busy and take control of their own destinies. Get ready. Be prepared. How's that saying go "In God We Trust, all others pay cash."

Posted on November 19, 2005 at 10:40 AM

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