April 2, 2005
By L.A. Lorek, San Antonio Express-News

From arts organization Urban 15's rooftop on the West Side, an antenna that looks like a mini-beer keg beams high-speed wireless Internet access to the neighborhood.

"This is going to open up San Antonio's under-served communities to the rest of the world," said George Cisneros, head of the nonprofit Urban 15.

For the past two weeks, Cisneros has been testing the wireless fidelity Internet system, known as Wi-Fi. He is working with Terry Weakly at WiFi-Sa.com and Dean McCall of Salsa.net to get free or low-cost Internet access to some of the city's poorer residents.

They have also talked with city officials about offering free wireless access points throughout San Antonio.

But a bill in the Texas Legislature aims to put restrictions on city-sponsored free Wi-Fi access.

House Bill 789, which passed in the House of Representatives earlier this week, is one of 11 bills around the country backed by big telecommunications and cable companies that prohibit cities from providing blanketed free Wi-Fi access.

In the hometown of SBC Communications, free wireless Internet access might be a tough sell.

While SBC is not opposed to cities providing Wi-Fi to public places such as city libraries or parks, spokesman Gene Acu"a said the company doesn't approve of ubiquitous free wireless access.

"When a city seeks to provide such information services like Wi-Fi to nonpublic places in direct competition with the private sector, then we have some real concerns," he said.

San Antonio has a number of locations that offer Wi-Fi Internet connections for a fee, such as Starbucks, Borders, Barnes & Noble and McDonalds. A few locations such as the Weston Centre downtown also offer free Wi-Fi Internet access. But no one offers free Wi-Fi citywide.

Cisneros, along with WiFi-SA.com and Salsa.net, want to change that. They want to place hundreds of small transmitters on top of buildings around San Antonio. Each would provide a "hot spot" allowing people to sign on to the Internet using computers equipped with Wi-Fi network cards.

Each transmitter provides coverage up to 300 feet from its site, but the transmitters could be networked together to form a wireless matrix so people would not lose their Internet signal as they traveled around the area.

Other Texas cities such as Corpus Christi have free Wi-Fi plans under way. Nationwide, a handful of cities including Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and Cleveland have discussed establishing citywide free wireless Internet networks.

So far, 42 regional and citywide free or low-cost broadband networks exist in the United States with plans for nine more, according to Muniwireless.com, a Web site written by Esme Vos, a consultant and lawyer who helps cities establish Wi-Fi networks.

Some organizations oppose free city-run Wi-Fi Internet networks because they claim those networks will drain city budgets and will cause layoffs at telecom companies.

The networks pose a "number of serious problems that are being overlooked as cities rush into committing millions in taxpayer dollar to pay for network development and expansion," said the New Millennium Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank.

Director Allen Hepner refused to say whether telecom and cable companies funded the research and council. The group is an "independent" offshoot of Issue Dynamics, a consulting firm that has done work for SBC and Verizon.

Ubiquitous free wireless Internet access might hurt commercial broadband competition from telecom and cable providers such as SBC, Time Warner and Grande Communications in San Antonio — all of which are investing heavily to provide high-speed broadband Internet networks to public and private customers.

In Texas, HB 789 — sponsored by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford — contains a provision that would extend and broaden the existing law barring cities from providing telecommunications or information services such as citywide free Wi-Fi.

The bill awaits action by the Senate. It has been amended to include a clause that prohibits cities from charging for wireless broadband services unless they were already doing so as of Jan. 1, 2005. The bill also states that a city may not provide wireless Internet access to the public unless they provide that service by June 15, 2006.

Cisneros and other community leaders are working to get a Wi-Fi network in place in San Antonio before the deadline.