Save Muni Wireless

• Burleson muni wi-fi to be built by.....Chevron??!? (Mar 29) — Esme Vos at muniwireless.com is reporting that Burleson will be building a wireless network for municipal operations and public access. ...
• Harlingen moves forward on muni wireless (Mar 27) — The City of Harlingen received a $500,000 TIF (Texas Infrastructure Fund) grant back in 2002 that was used to errect ...
• NOLA: Hands off our muni wi-fi (Mar 24) — This is off our usual beat; it's not a Texas story but it's illustrative. During the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New ...
• Digital Houston RFP is Released (Mar 22) — We noted previously that the City of Houston had released a draft RFP for the "Digital Houston Initiative," its city-wide ...
• Austin announces Outdoor Wireless Mesh Project (Mar 17) — Austin is currently one of the most unwired cities in the nation, achieved through a tapestry of hotspots. These numerous ...
• Wi-Fi Options Explored in Corpus (Feb 23) — From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: Local business and academic leaders met with city officials Wednesday to determine how best to ...
• Second Annual National Summit for Community Wireless Networks (Feb 18) — Late next month, there will be a summit for community wireless networks in St. Charles, MO. The Summit is the ...
• Houston releases draft RFP for city-wide Wi-Fi (Feb 17) — The City of Houston is looking to get into ubitquitous Wi-Fi in a big way. Today, the City released a ...
• Star-Telegram: Cities say Wi-Fi is necessity (Feb 15) — The effort to outlaw muni networks failed in Texas, but that doesn't mean it's over. The issue is alive in ...
• Market growth and advocacy at the Muni Wireless conference (Oct 3) — At 150 people were expected, but over 350 people came to the San Francisco Muni Wireless conference. At the keynote ...
• Texas Community Networks support Katrina Relief (Sep 18) — Volunteers from the Texas community and municipal network community have been helping to organize communications for hurricane evacuees. Technology For ...
• No Role for Munis (Aug 24) — The Fort Worth Startlegram has an article on the battle for municipal networks in Texas (annoying registration required). The article ...
• Corpus Christi joins the Digital Communities (Aug 19) — Intel has launched a Digital Communities initiative, to help municipalities obtain the information they need to successfully deploy new broadband ...
• Call to Veto SB 5 (Aug 19) — Free Press has just issued an action alert for all concerned Texans to call Governor Perry and ask him to ...
• Devastating Critique of US Broadband Policy (Aug 11) — How many megabits should a broadband connection be? One? Ten? Fifty? (Your 802.11g wireless network runs at 50Mbps.) A thousand? ...
• Telecom Passes to Governor (Aug 11) — Yesterday, the telecom bill passed out of the House 144 to 1, over the opposition of consumer, community, and industry ...
• Telecom Moving Forward (Aug 9) — Today, the telecom bill was passed out of the state Senate, and debated but not voted in the House. Passage ...
• Southlake Approves Public Wireless (Aug 9) — Last week, the City of Southlake approved funding for a pilot project to provide public access wireless Internet. $72,846 has ...
• Telecom May Return (Aug 9) — Reports are circulating that the legislature will take up a stopgap school financing measure today, and follow that with the ...
• NYT on municipal broadband (Aug 7) — New York Times columnistTom Friedman's writes a scathing op-ed about the backwardness of US broadband policy: I've been thinking of ...
• FCC restricts broadband competition (Aug 7) — Last Friday, the FCC ruled to reduce broadband competition. Beginning in about a year, phone companies will be able to ...
• Municipal broadband restrictions in the US Senate (Jul 28) — Senator Ensign of Nevada filed a rewrite of national telecom law. The bill places severe restrictions on the ability of ...
• Texas House approves telecom bill; TML stops opposition - deadline is Wednesday (Jul 17) — The Texas House passed SB21 today. The version that went to the house said nothing about municipal broadband, except to ...
• Lafayette, LA approves municipal fiber project (Jul 17) — After the passage of a law in Louisiana requiring a public referendum for municipal broadband, voters in Lafayette approved a ...
• Governor Perry adds telecom to the special session (Jul 13) — Yesterday, Governor Perry added telecom reform to the special session. Senator Fraser's telecom bill, SB21, includes: * ending price caps ...
• The WSJ Profile of the Granbury Muni Network (Jun 29) — In an earlier posting, we noted the excellent article by the Wall Street Journal on the battle between Granbury and ...
• Houston Muni Wi-Fi: It's in the Parking Meters (Jun 29) — According to a story in the Houston Chronicle, Houston is getting ready to deploy parking meters that communicate with Wi-Fi ...
• What happened in Orlando? (Jun 28) — Orlando put its downtown wireless access on hold, according to the Orlando Sentinel, because the service wasn't well-used, averaging only ...
• Senate Committee meets on telecom (Jun 28) — The Senate Business and Commerce Committee met yesterday - the video is archived here The focus was on a statewide ...
• Community Broadband Act of 2005 (Jun 26) — Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. will introduce legislation (called the Community Broadband Act of 2005) Thursday that ...
• US Lagging in Internet Development (Jun 26) — The United States led the world in broadband development until President Bush took office, but now we're lagging: "The Bush ...
• Senators McCain, Lautenberg to file bill protecting Municipal Broadband (Jun 23) — from Techdirt, via Fergie. Senators John McCain and Frank Lautenberg are introducing the Community Broadband Act of 2005, which would ...
• Wall Street Journal profiles Granbury, TX fight against SBC (Jun 23) — The front page of today's Wall Street Journal contains a profile of Granbury's municipal broadband initiative, interviewing IT Directory Tony ...
• Telecom Legislation to be Filed in Senate (Jun 22) — Sen. Troy Fraser has indicated he will file legislation in anticipation of telecom being added to the special session. During ...
• Mayor of Weatherford says Rep. King's agenda harms small cities (Jun 22) — The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported last week that the mayor of Weatherford wrote a letter to Rep. King in the ...
• Telcos want a Do-Over (Jun 21) — Texas legislators have been called back in session to deal with the school finance issue. Although telecom is not on ...
• Gov. Perry calls special session for school finance - telecom not on the agenda (Jun 18) — Governor Perry called for a 30-day special session on school finance, starting Tuesday. The agenda will be posted before Tuesday. ...
• They wanted to ban free roads, too (Jun 18) — Why should it be illegal for local governments to support broadband. Isn't it universally accepted that regional governments play a ...
• Pete Sessions: $500,000 of personal interest (Jun 15) — Freepress has reported that Texas Representative Pete Sessions holds $500,000 in SBC stock options. Congressman Sessions filed HR2726, which would ...
• ACT NOW: Stand Tall Against Phone Company Pressure (Jun 2) — Big phone companies sent over 160 lobbyists to the Capitol this spring with an agenda to increase phone rates, reduce ...
• Special Session to include telecom? (Jun 1) — The Quorum Report reports that Lt. Gov Dewhurst believes the failed telecom bills may be revived as part of the ...
• Why the Sessions bill is misleading (Jun 1) — The Pete Sessions bill to ban municipal networks pretends to allow municipal service only in the case of market failure ...
• Can't buy me law (May 31) — When we started working on this issue in Texas, people would warn us in hushed tones. "Do you know who ...
• Dallas Rep. Proposes National Muni Ban (May 31) — (Action required from people in the Dallas area.) U.S. Representative Pete Sessions of Dallas has just introduced federal legislation to ...
• Victory (May 30) — The Texas Legislature has declared sine die: the session is over. HB 789 is dead. Texas has turned its back ...
• Report that HB 789 Has Died (May 29) — Midnight this morning was the deadline for the HB 789 conference committee to make their report. The Quorum Report is ...
• ACT NOW: Final Chance to Save Muni Wireless (May 27) — ACTION ALERT Action is needed now to save Community Internet in Texas. If you have taken previous action on this ...
• HB789 Senate debate highlights (May 27) — For SaveMuniWireless, the highlight of the debate was something that didn't happen -- no effort to add back the ban ...
• New Action Alert Posted (May 26) — Our latest action alert is posted here. ...
• HB789 debate (May 24) — Summary: HB789 bill passes in the Senate, 31-0. No amendment was proposed to ban city-supported networks. The archived video will ...
• HB789 Senate debate TODAY (May 24) — HB789 is on the Senate Calendar for today. We expect an amendment by Senator Van de Putte of San Antonio ...
• ACT NOW: Contact State Senators (May 19) — May 27 update: This action alert has been superceded. New action alert here. ACTION ALERT Action is needed now to ...
• Muni Broadband Remains Threatened in Texas (May 18) — This week, the Texas legislature took an important step to support improved broadband availability in our state. In spite of ...
• Recap: HB789 in the Senate (May 16) — Wayne Caswell sent in a report from the HB789 hearings at the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Monday: I ...
• HB789 hearing in Senate Business and Commerce Committee -- municipal network ban is GONE from the Senate Committee Substitute (May 16) — May 17 update: This issue is being widely mis-reported. The threat is not over. The ban remains in the House ...
• Victory for municipal broadband in Florida (May 15) — Last week, Florida passed SB1322 after a tough battle. The bill requires cities providing broadband service to publish an annual ...
• ALERT: HB789 Hearing Scheduled for Monday 8 am in Senate Business and Commerce Committee (May 14) — The schedule was posted on Friday night. Please let the Senators know that we are paying attention. Please fax the ...
• Frankenbill dismembered: HB789 removed yesterday from the SB408 PUC sunset bill (May 14) — At a desk meeting in the House on Friday, HB789 was been removed from SB408, the PUC sunset bill. HB ...
• SBC to wine and dine Chairman King and the House Regulated Industries Committee (May 14) — Austin American Statesman Capitol RoundupThe seven members of the House Regulated Industries Committee, headed by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, are ...
• Good Overview of the Current Situation (May 12) — For a good overview of the community Internet situation in the Texas legislature, and what needs to be done about ...
• ACT NOW: Stop the Backdoor Attack on Muni Wireless (May 11) — May 27 update: This action alert has been superceded. New action alert here. ACTION ALERT Action is needed now to ...
• Telecom legislation sleight of hand (May 11) — Rep. Phil King is so intent on the passage of his consumer-hostile telecom legislation that he's hacked the legislative process ...
• Action Alert: HB789 stuck as amendment onto another Senate Bill -- Senator Nelson this is a controversial issue (May 10) — May 11 update: Sen. Nelson is opposed to these harmful changes. She has gone on the record saying that she ...
• Vote in this online poll (May 8) — Telephony Online is running an online poll on municipal broadband. The poll is at the bottom of the page -- ...
• Quorum Report: Cities, broadband enthousiasts vent anger of HB789 (May 3) — From the Quorum Report on Thursday April 28: State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) dodged a few bullets by not showing ...
• Austin Business Journal: Dell Stumps for Wi-Fi (May 2) — We noted in a previous posting that Michael Dell joined the opposition on a muni network ban. The Austin Business ...
• Dallas Business Journal: Bill Under Scrutiny (May 2) — The Dallas Business Journal reports that eyes are on the Texas Senate to see what direction HB 789—and its ban ...
• Falling Further Behind (Apr 26) — The current US policy depends on incumbent providers to build out the high-speed broadband network. That policy is not working ...
• Austin Chronicle: HB 789 Harmful to Public Internet (Apr 25) — The Austin Chronicle reports on the potential public harm from some of the telecom bills currently in the Texas house. ...
• Dell Supports Muni Networks (Apr 25) — Michael Dell has added his "influential voice" to those opposing the muni network ban. The Taylor Daily Press reports: Michael ...
• The Truth about Municipal Broadband Networks (Apr 17) — Connecting the Public: The Truth About Municipal Broadband" counters arguments that municipal networks improperly take the role of private enterprise. ...
• Foreign Affairs covers US broadband decline (Apr 17) — Thomas Bleha writes In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th ...
• Invitation: 7th Annual Community Internet Summit, Austin, April 28-30 (Apr 11) — Everyone in Texas who is involved in community or municipal internet project, or looking to get involved, is warmly invited ...
• Phil King Still Confused (Apr 6) — Yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an article on the anti-wireless provision of HB 789. The article has a very discouraging ...
• Wireless Dayton (Apr 5) — From whiotv.com: You can now surf the Internet for free in Downtown Dayton. Your wireless computer, P.D.A., or cell phone ...
• High-Tech Coalition Decries Muni Barriers (Apr 4) — The High Tech Broadband Coalition, an industry alliance formed by six of the leading tech industry trade associations, has released ...
• San Antonio Looks at City-Wide Wi-Fi (Apr 3) — A group of San Antonio citizens is investigating turning the Alamo city into one large wi-fi hotspot. The San Antonio ...
• Op-Ed: Burning the Strawman (Apr 1) — Earlier this week, the Austin American-Statesman published an op-ed by Phildelphia councilmember Frank Rizzo attacking municipal wireless. Today, they published ...
• Whining Telcos (Mar 30) — We previously highlighted the op-ed by Frank Rizzo, which parroted the tired arguments the telcos are making to attack community ...
• Op-Ed: No Love for Wi-Fi (Mar 30) — Today, the Austin American-Statesman published an op-ed by Philadelphia councilmember Frank Rizzo. You might recall that the city of brotherly ...
• We Condemn Threats on Rep. King (Mar 29) — News media are reporting tonight that threats have been made against Rep. Phil King, sponsor of HB 789. The Fort ...
• ACT NOW: Contact State Senators (Mar 28) — May 27 update: This action alert has been superceded. New action alert here. ACTION ALERT Action is needed now to ...
• Favorite quote #1 from HB789 debate, March 23 (Mar 28) — Rep. Sylvester Turner, speaking to Rep. Puente, the sponsor of the municipal wireless ban. Are you aware that some of ...
• Favorite quote #2 from HB789 debate, March 23 (Mar 28) — Rep. Scott Hochberg: "What is they are trying to protect? Is this really market share in the future sometime way ...
• Dark horse amendment bans open competition (Mar 27) — In the flurry of amendment proposals on Wednesday's debate, an amendment by Rep Crownover passed quickly without debate. The amendment ...
• Senator Troy Fraser explains the story (Mar 26) — In an article in Thursday's Austin-American Statesman, Senator Fraser explains the real story of the telecom bill. "It is becoming ...
• Esme Vos: Texas will join the laggards (Mar 26) — In an analysis of the HB789 debate, Esme Vos, who covers municipal wireless worldwide at MuniWireless.com explains how Texas and ...
• Texas House Votes to Limit Muni Wireless (Mar 23) — Today, the Texas House approved an amended version of HB 789 that bans municipal wireless services. That's disappointing, of course, ...
• Addison Lights Up (Mar 23) — Addison, Texas announced today that it will create a city-wide wireless hot spot. In what may be a first for ...
• HB 789 Debate Today (Mar 23) — HB 789 is on today's calendar to be debated in the Texas House of Representatives. You can watch the session ...
• Muni Network Documents (Mar 22) — We've collected numerous documents that address the muni network issue. We would like to make this information available to help ...
• HB 789 scheduled for House Vote on Wednesday (Mar 22) — The controversial muni network ban was stripped from HB 789 in committee. The bill sponsor has indicated the ban will ...
• City of Taylor Opposes Muni Ban (Mar 21) — We previously profiled the TaylorCNET project. The Taylor city council sees a ban on muni networks as a grave threat ...
• American Electronics Association Supports Muni Broadband (Mar 21) — The Texas Council of the American Electronics Association, the largest high-tech trade association in the nation, has thrown their support ...
• Eweek on municipal networks (Mar 18) — Carol Ellison at EWeek covers the battle over municipal broadband Ben Gould, whose company, DynamicCity sells fiber to systems to ...
• Please thank your legislator and ask them to keep standing up for community networks (Mar 17) — HB789 was voted out of committee today -- without the ban on municipal networks. But we expect the ban to ...
• HB789 Committee substitute is out -- muni wireless ban is GONE -- but don't relax yet -- bad amendments expected (Mar 17) — Section 54.202 no longer includes a ban on city-supported network services. The bill is back to status quo, which is ...
• URGENT: HB789 planned for vote Thursday (Mar 16) — ACTION ALERT The Texas House Committee on Regulated Industries plans to vote on HB789 on Thursday The current version of ...
• New report shows growth in Muniwireless (Mar 16) — A new report by Muniwireless.com shows the rapid growth in municipal wireless networks, in the US and overseeas. The report ...
• HB789 "carveouts" ban modern technology (Mar 15) — The current version of HB789 tries to make exemptions to preserve some city projects, yet protect SBC and Time Warner ...
• A Lull in the Action (Mar 14) — There has not been a whole lot of action this past week. There are two reasons for this. First and ...
• New HB789 bans mom from watching son earn eagle scout badge (Mar 12) — From Debbie Taylor, manager of Taylor CNET: Duane Whitaker was receiving his Eagle Scout designation. But his Mom was working ...
• Bill Gurley: Six reasons states should say no to broadband limits (Mar 12) — Venture capitalist and tech visionary Bill Gurley lists six reasons why states should say no to laws banning municipal networks. ...
• US is losing its competitive edge (Mar 12) — TechNet, a bipartisan network of tech CEOs, warned Congress last week that the U.S. could lose its tech leadership without ...
• HB 789 Revised, Still Ugly (Mar 8) — Mar 23 update: The language described here was pulled to get the legislation out of committee and onto the House ...
• Muni Wireless March Report Released (Mar 8) — MuniWireless.Com has released its March 2005 report on the state of muni networks. Esme notes: For those of you who ...
• ACT NOW: Contact State Representatives (Mar 7) — May 27 update: This action alert has been superceded. New action alert here. ACTION ALERT The Texas Legislature could make ...
• Tech CEOs Support Municipal Broadband (Mar 7) — TechNet, a network of high-tech CEOs whose members include Intel, Microsoft, and Texas Instruments, believes that states should encourage, not ...
• Bloggers right, left, and tech (Mar 6) — Blogs of War covers the story with interesting skinny on the financial interests at stake. Petrified Truth has more on ...
• Statesman Op-Ed calls for visionary communications planning (Mar 5) — What's missing from the current effort at state telecom reform? A vision and plan for the communications future of the ...
• Muni Across Texas: Houston and Belton (Mar 5) — Two new entries have been added to our "Muni Across Texas" collection of municipal network projects. The Houston TFA-Wireless project ...
• Houston Business Journal covers economic risk to cities (Mar 4) — The Houston Business Journal (220KB PDF) describes the risk to Texas economic development if HB789 Sec. 54.202 is passed. The ...
• Illinois Bill Stalled (Mar 3) — An Illinois bill to ban municipal broadband stalled last week after facing stiff opposition from citizen and community groups. Independent ...
• Houston Sees Threat to "Technology for All" (Mar 3) — A front-page article in today's Houston Chronicle discusses how the Technology for All project is getting low-cost Internet access into ...
• Muni Across Texas: Profiles of Municipal Broadband Projects (Mar 2) — We are all working to assure a bright broadband future for Texas. The broadband present, however, has some pretty remarkable ...
• Rep. King wasn't expecting to hear from citizens (Mar 2) — According to this Austin-American Statesman article, Chairman Phil King was surprised to hear that cities, towns and citizens favor municipal ...
• "Why we need to keep the muni option open" (Mar 1) — Opponents of municipal broadband networks "are monopolists who would rather regulate than compete," according to Harold Feld of the Media ...
• Taylor kids use videoconferencing to explore the world (Mar 1) — Debbie Kiewit writes in Taylor, sharing a video news clip about a videoconferencing session with Taylor Middle School students (will ...
• FCC Commissioner supports Muni Wireless (Mar 1) — As reported in CNET and picked up in the Houston Chronicle, FCC commissioner Michael Copps thinks municipalities are part of ...
• Consumers Union Focus on Texas (Feb 28) — The Consumers Union, an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving only consumers, has begun to focus on HB 789 ...
• Broadband for All (Feb 28) — The following was published as a letter to the editor in today's Austin American-Statesman. Provisions in Texas House Bill 789 ...
• Lessig on the role of government in broadband (Feb 26) — At the hearings last week, Chairman Phil King asked why governments should provide network access, when the same service can ...
• Community networks and the constitution (Feb 26) — ACLU-TX has signed on the to the list of groups opposed to the municipal wireless ban in Texas. Why is ...
• Public Hearing Wrap-Up (Feb 25) — Yesterday, the House Committee on Regulated Industries closed its public hearing on HB 789. The hearing ran for three days, ...
• Libraries Look Safe but Efforts Continue (Feb 24) — Everybody thought it was absurd the state would try to ban free wi-fi in public places like libraries and parks. ...
• Summary: February 23 Hearing (Feb 23) — HB 789 testimony continued today, with several speakers presenting views critical of Section 54.202 of the bill, the section that ...
• Reasons to Support The Muni Ban (Feb 23) — Yesterday, the House Committee on Regulated Industries opened up their public hearings on HB 789. On this first day, they ...
• David Deans on HB 789 (Feb 22) — David Deans has just published an analysis of HB 789. David concludes, "Bad economic policy [such as HB 789] is ...
• Tropos Sends a Message to Texas (Feb 21) — Tropos Networks, a manufacturer of mesh networking gear suitable for building metro-scale wireless networks, has sent a message to Texas. ...
• Public Hearing Tuesday (Feb 21) — Tomorrow, the House Committee on Regulated Industries will conduct a public hearing on HB 789. They will receive testimony on ...
• ACT NOW: Write State Legislators (Feb 20) — March 7 update: This action alert has been superceded. Please see the revised posting. Now is the time to tell ...
• Recent Articles (Feb 20) — Here are some of the recent articles we've seen highlighting the anti-wireless provisions of HB 789: No Free Wi-Fi For ...
• Text of HB 789 Anti-Wireless Provision (Feb 20) — HB 789, the omnibus telecommunications bill, isn't called onmibus for nothing. Even though we've linked to the legislative site in ...
• HB 789 is Slashdotted (Feb 19) — The HB 789 issue has just been posted to Slashdot. Welcome to the Slashdot readers who find their way here. ...
• The Save Muni Wireless Fact Sheet (Feb 18) — We've produced a fact sheet (12KB PDF) that summarizes some of the key reasons why we think the anti-muni provisions ...
• News from the Muni Network World (Feb 17) — Our plate is full fighting the Texas battle, so we don't plan to do a lot of general coverage of ...
• Announcing the TxMuni-Action Mailing List (Feb 16) — A new mailing list called TxMuni-Action has been formed to work towards the defeat of anti-muni provisions in Texas HB ...
• MuniWireless Shows Us Some Love (Feb 16) — The MuniWireless.Org web site has given us a very nice link. I'd like to invite visitors who want to get ...
• Welcome to SaveMuniWireless (Feb 15) — Welcome to the "Save Muni Wireless" web site. A number of organizations and concerned citizens are coming together to support ...