Keep broadband local

The issue of municipally owned broadband networks, including Wi-Fi and WiMAX operations, has become such a hot topic that it has sparked not one, but two new bills in the U.S. Congress. And that is bad news for everyone, regardless of their viewpoint on the issue.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), a former SBC Communications employee, surprised no one with his bill to prevent municipalities from owning their own networks in competition with private companies. A few weeks later, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) announced a measure that would take the opposite tact by codifying a municipality's right to build its own broadband network.

Neither measure is on target. More importantly, however, the bills represent a dangerous move down the slippery slope toward unnecessary federal intervention.

The issue of local broadband networks is — well, local.

The determination as to whether a community needs, wants and can afford to pay for its own broadband network cannot be made in Washington, D.C. The success or failure of such networks, especially those built on easily deployed (and easily outdated) Wi-Fi technology, depends much more on local leadership, resolve and funding. There is no blanket business case for local broadband — in some communities, it will become a boondoggle; in others it will be a lifeline.

That is the nature of local issues. It's why some communities have good schools and others see their students fail. It's even why some schools have exceptional athletic programs, year after year, and others excel at producing mathematicians or talented performers.

The national “No Child Left Behind” law, with all of its testing requirements, isn't likely to change the fundamental quality of local school programs. And a national municipal broadband bill is likely to suffer the same fate as that much-criticized legislation.

There would seem to be less harm in a bill that grants permission to municipalities to operate broadband nets if they see fit, but few things rolling down Capital Hill are so unencumbered.

The fact that there are dueling bills raises the distinct possibility that federal lawmakers will wind up debating the matter and producing a piece of legislation, or a segment of a broader reform bill, that serves primarily to complicate life for everyone interested in seeing broadband proliferation.

What is truly sad is that local politicians, service providers and technology companies could easily come together and work out something much more practical, with greater potential for success, if there was less debate and more discussion on this matter.

The needs are local, the problems are local, the determination (or lack of it) is local — so must the solutions be local.