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Municipal Wi-Fi Public Access Debated in Italian Cities and Across Europe

Venice Italy W2i

December 12, 2007 By Peter Orne, Editorial Director, W2i

At this year's Global Forum, which convened in Venice, Italy, on November 5-6, 2007, W2i hosted a series of Digital Cities Workshops sponsored by IBM that provided an opportunity for two dozen local authorities from Italy to Switzerland, Estonia to Spain, to brainstorm on the challenges of deploying broadband-wireless infrastructure in both rural and urban areas of Europe.

Overshadowing a discussion of an emerging regulatory framework around municipal wireless was a pervasive apprehension about the European Commission's ultimate stance on public service provision by cities themselves, which must make a case for market failure in order to legally provide public Wi-Fi access.

To receive the go-ahead from the EC, the City of Prague will limit use of its planned network to government operations and a "walled garden." Accordingly, in a high-profile decision in May, the EC ruled that Prague's municipal wireless project did not involve state aid [under Article 87(1) of the EC Treaty] because no special advantage would be conferred on any private- or public-sector operator of the network.

But critics have countered that the network will therefore provide little benefit to a public seeking low-cost broadband Internet access.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at the time: "Investment in broadband networks is primarily a matter for private companies. State subsidies for such networks are only acceptable if they address a well-defined market failure or cohesion problem. I am glad that the city council of Prague modified its plans so that the project can go ahead without distorting competition."

In Venice, Jean-Fran

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