One Economy (who I have no desire or intention to disparage beyond this particular lousy idea), has teamed with Cricket Wireless to apply for broadband stimulus funds in order to provide low-income residents of Baltimore, Washington D.C., Houston, Memphis and San Diego with 3G modems (using the Cricket network) as a means of bridging the digital divide.
Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that Cricket is basically applying for federal funds to buy their own service, this is a lousy project because 3G is often slow and inconsistent, is absolutely over-priced for the speed it delivers (when viewed as a fixed location service) and it does not represent a substantive infrastructure improvement. Lack of (affordable) infrastructure is quite often the chief factor leading to digital exclusion, and applying a single closed network, even with subsidized pricing, does nothing to alleviate the problem in the long-term. This proposal is akin to buying people helicopter rides instead of building roads to connect their homes to the highway. Perhaps the saddest part of the press-release, is the way it cites One Economy's success in Portland. Much of One Economy's Portland service (at least to my knowledge) was actually built out by NetEquality, using DSL, T1 and fixed WiMAX service to feed OpenMesh and Meraki units. Perhaps they have also begun to offer subsidized Cricket 3G, but the work that won them accolades was definitely not that. Shame on One Economy. Read more here: http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/cricket-one-economy-seek-expand-project-change-access-five-cities And here: http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/leap-wireless-one-economy-team-vye-broadband-stimulus-funds/2009-08-18 -- Michael Weinberg Volunteer Personal Telco Project, Inc. A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
