Indiana anti-municipal wireless bill dies in committee

A bill in Indiana to prohibit cities and towns from offering wireless networks died in committee on Wednesday. The story is good news for advocates of community networks in Texas. The ban that failed in Indiana is similar to a provision being heard at the Texas House Regulated Industries next week.
Indiana cities and towns made a compelling argument that the networks help economic development. For example, , the town of Auburn, Indiana (pop. 6000) was able to save jobs in local automotive repair and medical transcription business as a result of a municipal wireless network.
The story of Auburn, like many other small towns, belies the telco claim that the municipal wireless bans are in the public interest. As reported by Muniwireless, “The town approached Verizon about bringing broadband to their community, but the latter told them that there were not enough residents to make it worth Verizon’s trouble.”

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