The public good of available affordable broadband may need to be supplied by some municipalities in much the same way that some municipalities supply some other utilities But the brief municipal WiFi history suggests that municipal governments are not going to be the builders of the network in most American cities.

This comes from a new article by Harvey Jassem in the Journal of Urban Technology, one he calls a coda for municipal WiFi. It's an interesting story and he pulls out several cases, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York City, to illustrate the problems of municipal WiFi provision during the mid-2000s.

Still, Jassem argues there is a place for cities in broadband provision and that US cities should want to speed up the deployment of broadband.

His suggestions for cities include:

• "encourage spectrum efficiencies by the use of smart radios/transmitters";
• "encourage more spectrum be set aside for broadband... when scarcity is reduced, so are prices. The more WiMAX, the more use of “white spaces,” the more 3G and 4G, etc., the better";
•  "encourage competition in the alternative broadband technologies, network neutrality, Carterfone-like open network philosophies, and require or incentivize low-cost broadband availability when firms look to use licensed spectrum or when they seek antitrust waivers or other such gifts from the government."

Jassem is not specific as to how cities should encourage these changes. In Vancouver, procurement is a helpful carrot, which could apply here, too.

Continuing, Jassem writes: 

Policies should incentivize and permit open architecture and shared networks that spur innovation and competition. Cities must support the use of broadband in schools and should consider expanding access to the networks that the municipalities build or contract for themselves wherever possible.

In the Vancouver case, the city has long been an advocate on issues that don't normally fall into the municipal domain. There is a space here for Canadian cities to push the federal government on a robust and open national broadband strategy as they continue to do on climate, energy, jobs, and infrastructure.

But let's hope cities have more success with the fed on the broadband issue than they've had so far on climate, jobs, energy or infrastructure.