Jen Roland brought my attention to a terrific series of articles at Technology Liberation Front, about the many problems associated with municipal Internet provision and, in a larger sense, the problems that result from attempting to treat the Internet like a utility. I highly recommend the entire series.

This relates nicely to the situation AT&T had when they offered wi-fi in downtown St. Louis, in cooperation with the city. Now, AT&T owned the service, and the city did not, and access was always designed to be sold, not given away, so it is a different situation. Despite the problems involved with the wi-fi installation, the city (from my limited understanding of how it works) deserves credit for allowing a private company to provide the service, rather than trying to build the system themselves.