New Wireless Bill

Is A New Wireless Bill Going To Kill Municipal Wireless?
From: Washtenaw-Livingston Business Review

Michigan House Bill 4600, sponsored in April by Rep. Leon Drolet (R-Clinton Township), is designed to deregulate the telecommunications industry.

It also stops governments from offering telecommunications services.

Although the bill's language in its current form doesn't seem to pose any problem, Wireless Washtenaw coordinator David Behen said he's afraid that amendments could squelch the budding program, along with similar efforts in other parts of the state, such as Oakland County.

For now, all the proposed legislation says is: "A governmental entity shall not provide a communications service except for the use of the entity itself."

In other words, a municipality like Washtenaw County can't own a wireless broadband system and provide access to local residents, businesses and tourists. But it could set up a system for its employees to use on the job.

Wireless Washtenaw has no intention of owning such a system. It wants a countywide network to be privately owned and maintained, with no financial outlay by the county.

Behen said he fears the initial language is "the tip of the iceberg," and more restrictive wording could be added. He's working with the county's lobbyist, former state representative Kirk Profit, to help head off any potential problems.

Meanwhile in March, state Rep. John Garfield, a Republican from Oakland County, introduced legislation to kill the Michigan Broadband Development Authority. Through last year the authority had made more than $12 million in loans to broadband companies and projects throughout the state.

Oakland County has said it wants to use the authority to help fund its wireless project. And I wouldn't be surprised if it figures in the Washtenaw project.

But it's kind of amusing that one Republican, Oakland executive L. Brooks Patterson, wants everyone to notice his fancy footwork when he does the wireless dance, while another Republican in his own back yard is plotting to kick him in the shins.

Evolving technology

Even if Wireless Washtenaw fully develops, I'm not sure I'd want to be a supplier, unless the financial projections looked outstanding. But maybe not even then.

That's because wireless technology is changing so fast that once a network is installed something could come along at a better price with faster speeds and make it all obsolete, maybe within a few months.

Take, for example, a new Pembroke Pines, Fla. company called Sanswire Networks LLC. This company plans to send solar-powered, blimp-like airships called stratellites, to an altitude of 13 miles. These would function like satellites, with much faster upload speeds, at a fraction of the cost. One of the airships, the company says, can cover an area the size of Texas with its wireless signals.

The company wants to create a national broadband network, so I could take my laptop anywhere and hook up. Forget Wireless Washtenaw, it would be Wireless America. I'd jump at that in a second.

Sanswire, of course, still has to execute its business plan and there are no guarantees. The company has not provided details about timeline or price.

Nevertheless, Behen told me that he's gotten a lot of interest from vendors, many of whom will attend a May 18 meeting to discuss the project.

The proof will be when the requests for proposal are returned to Behen in June. Then we'll get a good idea of how profitable the project might be.

A flat world

I'm not in the habit of plugging books, but I'm in the middle of "The World is Flat" by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

For anyone who wants to understand how the global economy has been transformed for good by the Internet, digitization, Y2K, the dot-com bust, open-source software, Wal-Mart and its supply-chain management, and a host of other factors, it is a compelling read.

The guys at NextServices, whom I mentioned in my last column, loaned me the book. They are taking advantage of the "flattening" of the global economy in their own medical services business, which makes use of workers in India. A couple days later, T/J Technologies CEO Maria Thompson told me it was one of her favorite books.