I laughed out loud when I got to this last part of the article:
Moving forward, Portland officials should weigh the merits of suspending local red tape such as rights-of-way restrictions, franchise taxes and pole fees to encourage new investment and competitive choice in the broadband market, which can lower prices and increase the quality of services in a more sustainable way.
I wonder if Mr. Penzo lives in Portland. Asking the Portland city council to suspend taxes and fees is like asking water to run uphill. It’s a physical impossibility.
A couple of years ago, that paragon of genius, Randy Leonard, wanted to tax cell phone companies in the same way the city did for land line use. His rationale was a good tax was a tax someone else paid. Either he didn’t realize or didn’t care that the cell companies would just pass on the fee to all cell users in Portland. The city’s track record is to increase fees and add taxes, not decrease fees and remove taxes.
The MetroFi wireless system downtown sucks. It is incredibly slow, with spotty coverage and connections are dropped more often than a hooker in downtown Bangkok. Yet, the MetroFi P.R. engine keeps a positive spin on things. I seriously doubt Portland’s fearless leaders have a clue about how bad it is.
Besides they have more important things to worry about, like renaming a street.