Internet as a Public Service
This sounds great to me Kirstin. Although of course as always, my expectations are tempered by the issues currently facing Net Neutrality. I sincerely doubt the big telecos will offer substantial bandwidth to community-wide access projects if they are allowed to tier their service.
Here's another couple:
Alameda California
Rhode Island Statewide Project
While these services might not be free, they do allow the average user to have more choice and more areas which allow access to the Internet. The Rhode Island project is interesting in particular, not only because it would be Statewide, but because it is sponsored by many area businesses, as well as the RIEDC. Basically, the argument here being that increased availability of cheap Internet access improves the overall economy. I can't disagree there.
Personally, I am an advocate of those individuals with enough money and free bandwidth contributing to this cause as well. All it takes is a WiFi Access Point that also acts as a router. That way you can allow your neighbors to have access to your Internet bandwidth, while still protecting your own computer from any potential viruses and the like that they might download.
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