Allegations fly over City Wi-Fi

BY AARON NEUMANN

Amid allegations by critics that city leaders were being driven by right-wing think tanks and industry groups, the Minneapolis City Council voted last Friday to begin outsourcing a citywide public Wi-Fi (wireless) network. Curiously, the Council allowed staff to present the latest proposal, one that’s nearly identical to the pro-private neocon positions on municipal Wi-Fi networks. Since councilmembers had just 24 hours to review the revised proposal before the entire Council voted on it, it appeared to some that the Council was bulldozing a vote.

The 11 to 1 vote came quickly, despite legitimate concerns about the current proposals and the process that has produced them (see “Rybak’s Great Giveaway: The selling out of public Wi-Fi” at www.southsidepride.com or www.pulsetc.com), more specifically, that public ownership of Wi-Fi was not seriously studied at any point in the process, and the two ownership models have never been compared head-to-head.

“It’s inexcusable that the Council allowed staff to present the so-called business case,” says Becca Vargo Daggett, research associate for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and director of its Municipal Telecommunications Project. Daggett said “the Council should have taken two