David Taylor wrote:
>>companies, local phone companies, to pass laws against free municipal
>>WiFI. They are terrified that this cash cow will be lost to them.
>
>
> Where does this WiFi come from? Someone has to install it, who gets the
> money? The provider. Someone, somewhere is paying for it.

This is true, but they are not paying nearly as much as multiplying all
the individual subscribers by the cost per month that each is paying.
The infrastructure is not all that expensive.

> Given that there are no figures it seems, it's a bit pointless debating
> whether they're bothered or not.

Given that they are frantically trying to get a law passed that
prohibits any municipal funding of WiFi, it's clear that they are
bothered. They've even given the bill a Bush-like 1984 name, the
"Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005." It's as if bookstores
tried to pass a law that prohibited municipal funding of libraries.