You probably have a WiFi connection at home for wireless internet access. You may have heard about WiMAX (and the European version called “Hiperman“) which you can think of as city-wide (or a theoretical 31 mile radius) large scale wireless internet access. What you probably haven’t heard of is a new technology offering called “xMax” which appears to be magic.

Oh….if it were only so easy to simply get excited about ubiquitous (and either free or low cost) internet access without a governmental, micromanagement tug-of-war occurring first:

• Congressman Pete Sessions (who also happens to be a former telecom executive) has introduced a bill, H.R. 2726 (PDF here), that would prevent cities from establishing their own Wi-Fi networks. The intent is to prohibit municipal governments from offering telecommunications, information, or cable services except to remedy market failures by private enterprise to provide such services.

• In opposition, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) have  introduced legislation that specifically permits municipalities to offer low-cost broadband service and have made it a part of their previously announced Community Broadband Act of 2005. Their intent? To amend the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to preserve and protect the ability of local governments to provide broadband capability and services.

Still…being in a tug-of-war is precisely what they’re there for and my respect and admiration for Senator McCain grows all the time. He “gets” that the job of government is to be a catalyst to incubate innovation vs. protecting special interests and tying up innovators with regulation.

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