Universal Access and Fiscal Responsibility

In a great post, Sascha Meinrath, a fellow Community Wireless proponent talks about the Pros of Community Networks.

If Universal Access is a key component of a community’s mission, then it can be achieved 3 ways:

1. Via laws and regulation—This is the least likely to succeed, since laws change, and can often times be trumped by state and federal legislation. National or even local for-profit companies are very good at fighting against such laws, both politically and via public opinion.
2. Via subsidies and tax breaks/credits—This is expensive. Consider what it might cost in terms of tax dollars to convince a for-profit company to provide universal access. The company is in a position of power, in this case, and the price that a community will pay is proportional to how much they want the service. This is standard supply/demand economics.

1. Via municipal networks—This may or may not be expensive, and has clear benefits over the medium and long term (as well as other benefits above).

   The key here is that muni-networks are very often (always?) cheaper than the alternative, which is #2. Also, such projects (a) keep money in the local economy, and (b) creates local jobs, whereas solution #2 (and #1 for that matter) moves money out of the community.

   The clear fiscally responsible choice for universal access is a muni-network, assuming that a sound plan for the operation of the network is created.

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