Municipal WiFi networks could help beat US carriers and politicians in the battle over so-called "net neutrality," according to one leading campaigner
Stanford University law professor Larry Lessig
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"There's an explosion in municipal mesh networks... as you see the clouds exploding above the cities and people unify them, the last mile is solved. The last mile is provided free of proprietary control," Lessig said.
Wonderful clouds exploding imagery aside, the wireless networks aren't taking off with quite the speed that Lessig claims. Google only fired up its free WiFi service in Mountain View this week - close to a year after it first promised to establish the service. And, those hoping to use the service, have to sign onto their Google account, letting the ad broker at their traffic. Meanwhile, major cities have struggled to rollout networks and see their WiFi plans as multi-year efforts.
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