San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s comments are right on the mark, and this time they have nothing to do with marriage. Newsom recently proposed that a fast Internet connection, important to the development and livelihood of all citizens, should be available to every resident of his city. San Francisco is just one of many municipalities exploring the prospect of a city-wide wireless broadband network providing citizens with speedy broadband connections, accessible anywhere. Users would be charged less than half the monthly fee of current mainstream private providers.
Although private provider companies, like Comcast, Verizon or Qwest, could develop a similar city-wide wireless network, they will probably never take that chance. These companies made large investments to create their current wired networks, which they charge premium prices to access. Creating a wireless network would not only take further investment, it would devalue their older investments. Therefore, the task of creating such forward-thinking networks must fall to civic-minded citizens.
It may seem nearly impossible to wrench broadband access from the private grasp of large domineering corporations, but Eugene, always a progressive city, has made similar actions in the past and today we reap the benefits.
According to Eugene Water and Electric Board Web site, citizens of Eugene in the early 1900s became “increasingly dissatisfied with the private, for-profit water utility serving the community. When a 1906 typhoid fever epidemic was traced to the water supply, Eugene’s citizens overwhelmingly supported municipal ownership of the water system.” In 1908 voters approved the necessary bonds to purchase the private utility and create the municipal water system that provides us with relatively low-cost power and water options.
While it is unlikely that our current private broadband providers could infect anyone with a case of typhoid fever, their high rates make broadband prohibitively expensive to low-income families and residents and all but the wealthiest of students.
One major benefit of city wireless service is that enterprise zones could be created, within which Internet access would be free. Downtown, businesses could pay low monthly rates to offer access to patrons. Schools could ensure that students and their families would have adequate access to information, send
e-mail updates to parents and place class assignments on the Internet. The University could use the system to extend its own wireless network, already free to students with a valid password, into off-campus areas like the West University neighborhood. Police and emergency services could use the city-wide network to access critical information en route to an accident.
The citizens of Eugene have a small window of time to act. A large scale effort to create a similar network in Philadelphia was met with resistance from leaders who seem a little too willing to sit on their hands while progress marches forward. Just as well-maintained paved roads are today’s arteries of commerce and transportation, the wireless network will be tomorrow.
The bottom line: a municipal broadband wireless network will improve the quality of life for the residents and entrepreneurs of this city, and it will push Eugene to the forefront of technological advancement. Ask your city councilors for such a network now.

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