Dublin cans free wireless broadband
Against EU law
Monday, 14 January 2008, 09:04
DUBLIN CITY Council has abandoned a plan to provide free wireless
broadband throughout the fair city.
The reason has nothing to do with the fact it always rains in Dublin, but because someone just worked out that giving free stuff to people was against the law.
Brussels apparently does not like the state giving cash out to start up such projects when there are a lot of EU companies that would do the job.
The project is estimated to cost €27million and was first mooted by the Labour Party, which now claims that the council is backing down under pressure from the telecommunications industry.
The council said that it would provide Wi-Fi access to Ballymun and Ballyfermot, where there is a lack of coverage and it is not likely to upset anyone. µ
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Ballymun and Ballyfermot are not liable to cause a lot of noise as free wi-fi sites as they are Dublin's equivalent of the projects in the US, or the most run-down council estates in the country. Usage levels will not be high I suspect.
What I don't understand is why I never hear of free commercial networks. If you avoid downloading game, video and music files, then it's very difficult to download more than a Gigabyte of data a month. You simply charge everybody who uses over a Gigabyte. Also, I've heard that the less time someone has been on the Internet, the more likely they are to click on random advertisements, so that's helpful as well.

So, basically, if you downloaded less than a Gig of data, you'd get free Internet, and then charge competitive prices for each successive Gigabyte.

Could someone please explain to me what's wrong with that model? Because, I honestly don't understand why I've never heard of anything similar.