Jim Compton suggests Seattle should move from most wired to most unwired city: The councilman is starting a task force today to discuss how to move forward. Seattle's topology makes it problematic to offer city-wide coverage, and there are issues of competitiveness with broadband providers and enablers, like Qwest, DSL, Comcast, and Speakeasy.
I'm entirely in favor of this model of promoting competition. A city has certain inherent monopoly abilities that make it easier to work with utilities and gain access to spaces. But they also have higher costs, union issues, and other details that make it hard for them to be entirely fleet. Another player in the market can always help, however, by making the pool of customers larger. [via Brian Chin]