Wi-Fi for the Masses?

Monday afternoon. How is this blog reaching you? Are you sitting at a desktop computer with a cable going from your machine to your modem? Or are you using a laptop, with an antenna built in, or a PC card sticking out of the side?

More to the point, what are you paying for that connection? Thirty bucks a month? Twenty? Or — dare we suggest it — are you getting the signal for free?

The latest contestant to enter the race for free wireless access is Google, answering an invitation for bidders from the mayor of San Francisco. Philadelphia has been debating the issue for months. All of which raises a wonderful question: is Internet access, of all things, a right or a privilege?

Hmmm. Let’s see… I pay for electricity, for water, for heat, certainly for food. Why is data different?

(In theory, your TV signal is free, a service regulated by the FCC, but in practice, more and more people are willing to pay for it. Nearly 90 percent of Americans have cable or satellite.)

Obviously, the guys at Google don’t have to be rocket scientists to figure out ways to make money by giving out a free signal. Ad revenue and various partnerships will quickly cover their expenses; you just pay for your computer. Cell-phone providers work on a reverse model: they’ll cheerfully give you a free phone, and you pay for minutes used.

But why Wi-Fi? Why should that be a public service, offered with the backing of local governments, if other utilities — including dialup access — are not?

– Ned