Andy Kessler: WSJ: Philadel-Fi
Andy Kessler on the fight between the city of Philadelphia and Verizon over free-wi-fi in the city of bro love.
"It is, and its not going to be pretty for Verizon. By rigging the city with wireless hotspots, under the guise of helping the disadvantaged, Philadelphia may completely bypass Verizon. A T-1 line from Verizon, which is 1.5 megabits of data per second, runs anywhere from $400 to $1300 dollars a month. With Municipal Wi-Fi (Mu-Fi), that could drop to $300, heck, maybe even $20 a month. Consumers (read voters) are happy and small businesses will save tons of money. No wonder phone companies are circling the wagons. Think of it as a Telco tax cut. Cheese steak sales are gonna boom."
