I've never been in a city where there is a city-wide Internet access provided by the city so I don't know what Los Angeles has planned. But the city council is set to take up a motion to consider setting up and providing city-wide Internet access.
Read again. It's only to discuss a motion to start thinking about how feasible it is to set up a city-wide WiFi access.
Newly minted council member, Bob Blumenfield, head of City Council's Innovation, Technology and General Services Committee, will introduce a motion, that requires approval, to ask city employees how this could be done.
Now, this is the City of Los Angeles. Flat, spread out, pockets of the LA city, here and there. Not concentrated like SF or NY. So, I reckon they're probably talking about downtown Los Angeles, north of the 10, east of the 110, southwest of the 101 and 5.
The city could probably be talking about West Los Angeles and midtown. But south of the 10, you know, South Central and Watts area? I certain hope the city council does include that large segment of the city because that's where we need free WiFi access to many who truly cannot afford it there.
So, you can judge by my tone of voice that I'm not all that excited. The move is only to ask for permission to begin talking about city-wide WiFi access. Personally, I've been waiting for years to see what White Spaces could do for a big and spread-out city like Los Angeles. I think only a wider range system could work here.
Still, it's good to get folks thinking and maybe this will get someone to innovate and figure out something even better than what we already have.
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