The ambitious free wireless Internet service that the municipality in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, originally proposed in January 2006 to provide wireless broadband to more than a million residents has now been divided into two phases. And it has been renamed as "Wireless Prague."
The first phase -- Phase One -- entails building a backbone network in 21 out of total 57 Prague districts. Per the latest plan, this will now only allow free 64 kbps access for citizen to access City Hall services. Additionally, this network will also be used to enable the schools and the City Hall offices access the Internet at a cost to be borne by the city government. Phase One is already under implementation.
But it is the controversial second phase -- extending the Wi-Fi network to the rest of the districts in Prague -- that is now head for a showdown. Prague's private telecom operators are arguing that, "in the territory of the capital city of Prague, the availability of broadband Internet already reaches 100%." They say that even though Prague City Hall has revamped the plan, Phase Two still would present unfair competition to existing commercial Internet providers even if it wasn't free. New ISPs could resell city network bandwidth at reduced cost, something the existing telcom operators would have difficulty competing with price-wise.
"Initially the Association of the Providers of Public Telecommunication Networks (APVTS) filed the complaint with the European Commission to stop non-commercial free access to Internet," says Hana Jelínková, executive director of the APVTS. "Reacting to the complaint, the City Hall came up with an idea to offer the network to commercial operators (fixed, mobile and Wi-Fi). Though commercial operators are still awaiting an official "commercial offer" as it has been promised by the City Hall, we have already expressed our lack of interest in the commercial cooperation."
The APVTS argues that commercial networks enabling Internet access to households and businesses are "more than sufficient to meet all requirements." Moreover, public areas are covered by the signals of mobile operators (commercially) while a number of café and restaurants in Prague also offer "free" Internet services.
Clash of Two Interests
Almost mirroring some of the early muni-wireless battles in the U.S., Prague's proposed citywide wireless plan is yet another case where municipal broadband has seriously clashed with incumbent telcom operators. "The City Hall needs this projects because it wants to have a wireless network that is under the management and control of the municipality, in part so that security is not in the hands of an outsider," said Jaroslav ?olc, head of the department for strategy at Prague City Hall. "We also need it for internal services because we have strategic plans for e-government services."
However, according to private telecom operators, apart from killing competition, a municipal network would also be a "gross waste of money."
"The projected cost of the Wireless Prague project is Euro 10 million (US$11.5 million), to be financed by the City Hall and the European Union's Structural Funds, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)," says Jelínková. "But there are already many operators in Prague offering their services in the frequency bands of 2.4 and 5 GHz -- the frequencies that the Prague Municipal Council is planning to use. So where is the need for another network?"
The APVTS also claims that the Prague project does not fall within the objectives of ERDF, which the European Commission intended to be used by a municipality to offer free Internet in areas where there was a lower level of economic development and where there were no ISPs providing broadband Internet at favorable prices. According to the APVTS, "The Capital City of Prague is neither economically underdeveloped, nor a city with inadequate broadband service."
There are other concerns as well. The APVTS fears that private providers of Internet services are going to be harmed by the fact that the network infrastructure built in Phase One or that which is now planned in Phase II will interfere with their networks. "Consequently, this will threaten operators offering their services in the frequency bands of 2.5 and 5 GHz, who might lose customers as a result of a lower quality of connection," says Jelínková.
EC Still Undecided
In spite of the opposition, Prague City Hall insists that the project should go ahead. "Private operators say that Prague already has many wireless options (such as CDMA, and GPRS) but those are not the right services for the City," says ?olc of Prague City Hall. "We are insisting on the project because we think wireless broadband brings in a new environment for mobile services."
Solc says that the EC's decision on this issue, which could ultimately decide its future, is keenly awaited. But the problem is the EC has not come to any decision and this is now delaying the project's implementation.
Audrey Lemonnier, press officer for Competition Policy at EC says that it "is still analyzing this case and no decision has been made yet."
It is difficult at this point to know which way the EC is going to jump here. "Generally, the Commission is actively promoting access to broadband for all citizens and businesses in the European Union," says Lemonnier. "Such projects should however not distort competition within the EC common market in any significant way."
If past statistics from past cases are any indication, an extended Wireless Prague network may not be as dead as the telcom incumbents hope. So far, the European Commission has issued more than 20 decisions concerning state support to broadband and, competition or not, all but one was in favor state sponsored deployments.
So a city owned "Wireless Prague" might still see light of the day, even if it is 18 months behind its original launch date.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Indrajit Basu
Quelle/Source: Government Technology, 15.03.2007
