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- Guess Why There Isn't Free Wi-Fi
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Philadelphia & Pittsburgh were looking into free municipal wi-fi when the various commercial groups looked at this and said, "why let them give this away when we could set it up as a commercial operation and charge people money?" So they lobbied the state legislature pretty hard, got a bill passed, then twisted the arm of the Gov. So any city|town which wants to install a free one has to give the right of first refusal to any commercial operation; and it's an unGodly period of time - ca. fourteen months(?).
This isn't unlike certain companies lobbying the Feds to stop providing free weather information. They want access to the free information, then sell subscriptions or post ads; basically, collect money from people despite the fact the information has already been paid for by people with tax dollars.
Unfortunately, it's not going to do any good to tell someone to "stop by eBay and buy a clue" because these commercial enterprises do have a clue - a clue how to charge people for things which their governments (at various levels) are willing to give them things and businesses are pushing their weight around in order to mandate people paying for these free services.
It's not going to get any better because I don't think those laws have sunset clauses - so it'll take legislation to undo those laws. And something in place is a heck of a lot harder to pry out. - Posted by: Mihi Nomen Est Posted on: 10/05/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
Out with the old, in with the new. They tried to protect old technologies,
DonnieBoy | 10/04/05
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Guess Why There Isn't Free Wi-Fi
Mihi Nomen Est | 10/05/05
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