- MEMBERS RECEIVE ACCESS TO:
- CIO Leadership Group
  CIO Leadership Task Force provides a unique forum for Chief Information Officers from the largest cities and counties in the U.S. to privately interact, both through an online collaboration site and in regular face-to-face meetings. It offers these leaders an on-going opportunity to share information and experiences, and to discussing IT challenges facing larger community jurisdictions.
- Digital Infrastructure
  Task Force
  The Digital Infrastructure Task Force is a collaborative networking group for government IT professionals. Through timely exchange of information and experiences, both online and through regular face to face meetings, municipal and regional government members help each other to make smarter technology decisions for their communities.
- Law Enforcement
  IT Task Force
  The Law Enforcement Task Force is a collaborative networking group for local law enforcement officials from across the nation. In online and regular face to face meetings, both sworn and civilian law enforcement officials come here to discuss technology trends, collaboration and information sharing opportunities within the local law enforcement community.
- Private Events
  and Webinars
- Exclusive White Papers
- JOIN:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
Digital Communities Home
Introduction
Feature Articles
Local Government Events
Contact
Digital Communities Blogs
Digital Citizen Pulse
Broadband Nation
Web 2.0 Convergence
In the Trenches
International Beat
Notes from a City CIO
Intelligent Communities
MuniGov 2.0
Surveys and Awards
Digital Cities Survey
Digital Counties Survey
DGAA Awards
Best of the Web Awards
Reference and
Resource Library
White Papers
Exclusives
Webinars
Best Practices
Digital Communities
Special Focus
Current Issue
Past Issues
Subscribe

Digital Communities
Industry Members

Click sponsor logos for whitepapers, case studies, and best practices.

Prague's City-Wide Free Wireless Project Runs Into Telcom Opposition

March 15, 2007 By Indrajit Basu, International Correspondent

Succumbing to the year-long fight over city-provided free wireless Internet in Prague has run into more than a slight snag. The City Council has now dropped the word "free" from the "Free Internet for Prague Citizens" name and it has given the planned initiative a revamp. Even so, City Hall's goal of deploying a city-wide wireless broadband service is anything but clear sailing as opposition continues.

The ambitious free wireless Internet service that the municipality in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, originally proposed in January 2006 to provide wireless broadband to more than a million residents has now been divided into two phases. And it has been renamed as "Wireless Prague."

The first phase -- Phase One -- entails building a backbone network in 21 out of total 57 Prague districts. Per the latest plan, this will now only allow free 64 kbps access for citizen to access City Hall services. Additionally, this network will also be used to enable the schools and the City Hall offices access the Internet at a cost to be borne by the city government. Phase One is already under implementation.

But it is the controversial second phase -- extending the Wi-Fi network to the rest of the districts in Prague -- that is now head for a showdown. Prague's private telecom operators are arguing that, "in the territory of the capital city of Prague, the availability of broadband Internet already reaches 100%." They say that even though Prague City Hall has revamped the plan, Phase Two still would present unfair competition to existing commercial Internet providers even if it wasn't free. New ISPs could resell city network bandwidth at reduced cost, something the existing telcom operators would have difficulty competing with price-wise.

"Initially the Association of the Providers of Public Telecommunication Networks (APVTS) filed the complaint with the European Commission to stop non-commercial free access to Internet," says Hana Jel

| More

Comments

Add Your Comment

Name *

Comment *

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. We reserve the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.

In Our Library

White Papers | Exclusives Reports | Webinar Archives | Best Practices and Case Studies

Are You Sure You Are Maximizing the Value of Your Microsoft SharePoint Investment?: The Microsoft SharePoint platform provides a wealth of opportunities for any organization to streamline business processes and expand knowledge sharing; however most government organizations struggle to take advantage of these opportunities.
Hurricane Preparedness: Make sure you are prepared for hurricane season before it is here. Join in this Digital Communities teleconference and gain insight on how to prepare from experts who have been on the ground during major hurricanes.
Kofax Analytics for Capture: Does your agency struggle to add Business Intelligence to your capture operations?

Latest From Digital Communities Features

Follow @dcommunities

Government Best Practices

Digital Cities & Digital Counties Survey: Best Practice Guide

Real Time for McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator

Public Safety Guide: From Call to Car to Crisis

Public Safety Mobile Apps for 4G Networks

10 Requirements for a Successful Oracle R12 Upgrade

Kofax Analytics for Capture

Business Intelligence Roadmap

Featured White Papers & Reports

Government-to-Government IT Services: What Works and What's Left to Work Out

This Digital Communities white paper highlights discussions with IT officials in four counties that have adopted shared services models. Our aim was to learn about the obstacles these governments have faced when it comes to shared services and what it takes to overcome those roadblocks. We also spoke with several members of the IT industry who have thought long and hard about these issues. The paper offers some best practices for shared government-to-government services, but also points out challenges that government and industry still must overcome before this model gains widespread adoption.

View Full Library

Events

GTC East

Don't miss this opportunity to see the latest in digital government solutions, keep abreast of current policy issues and network with key government executives, technologists and industry specialists.

View All Events