HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — 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.
In fact, a bill on Gov. Ed Rendell’s desk that could humble Philadelphia’s ambitions began 19 months ago as a proposal drafted by lobbyists for telecommunications companies.
Regional and long-distance phone companies, which 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 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 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 outward flow of college graduates, she said.
But the telecoms industry, its business in turmoil as such disruptive technologies as Voice over Internet calling turn traditional revenue models on end, calls such public-sector projects unfair competition.
In the past year, companies including Qwest Communications International Inc., Sprint Corp., BellSouth Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. have pressed for legislation in Pennsylvania, Florida, Utah and Louisiana that would extract concessions from public-sector telecommunications ventures.