This story appeared on Network World Fusion at http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/041805widernet.html
Expanding city Wi-Fi net proves no day at the beach Wireless plan becomes tangled in politics. By John Cox Network World, 04/18/05 You may be able to see the future of municipal wireless networks unfolding in Hermosa Beach, Calif. And it's not pretty. The city last summer launched a public Wi-Fi network based on wireless mesh radios. The goal was to create free wireless Internet access as an alternative to broadband services offered by Adelphia, Verizon and others. But since December, the five-person city council has been locked in increasingly rancorous debates over whether the wireless LAN (WLAN) should be expanded across this 1.3-square-mile bedroom community of about 19,000 people. While far removed from high-profile political battles in states such as Pennsylvania and Texas over whether municipal networks should be encouraged or restricted, Hermosa Beach has become a case study of the dictum by the late U.S. House Speaker Thomas O'Neill that "All politics is local." Here, technology issues are intimately wedded to ideas about the proper role of government, business and citizenship, and about municipal priorities. .... more .... -- Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting [EMAIL PROTECTED], +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without [EMAIL PROTECTED] possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke
