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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

We want the world and we want it now.

You have to be old to recall where that posting title line came from. Yet when the music's over, I want the world, via highspeed broadband wireless, in Ramsey, and I do want it now and with the lights turned up.

Join the 21st Century, Tom Gamec. And not just for the new plush palace in Clown Town, or for PACT school there; but for all of Ramsey, where I live and care about; and so young people can keep up with technology better, and old farts can be free of Qwest and Comcast and can instead partake of more fairly priced municipal broadband opportunities. Now.

St. Cloud went with Clearwire; a firm with a promising WiMax future; as shown here, here, here, here, here, and ruraly, here. That firm's issued a range of press releases.

St. Louis Park went with WiFi, as shown here, here, and here. The St. Louis Park municipal website is well laid out and informative; and should be emulated by others.

It looks as if WiMax may have the better ultimate critical mass; or a grid with WiMax for more distant sites and WiFi sprinkling for denser mobile internet usage sites. An RFP and targeted vendor solicitations should yield solution alternatives, and the municipal pioneers already have ventured out, and Ramsey could tug on sleeves and learn a lot from them, in Minnesota and elsewhere.

My guess is the mobile computing user density of a university campus will never be reached in Ramsey; but don't sell our people short on wanting sensible progress - instead of smoke and mirrors and crabgrass. The Crabgrassers, if smart, would sign up and join up. It offers a product distinction useful in a market glutted with townhome metro-wide sameness.

And any new tower permitted in the City should only be allowed, conditioned upon City rights of co-use, for whatever municipal broadband the city ultimately offers. If all you like is to go into woods and slaughter deer when allowed , or to ride something motorized and shout, "Yahoo" and all, it's not your battle; but you can enjoy such things and still be a Boy Scout counselor or whatever and aim to upgrade the thinking and skills of the troop.

Who knows? Municipal utility service for broadband wireless may even, via voice over Internet, allow a home to be phone-wire free without having to be dependent on cell phones only or the hated cable company - another species of crabgrass, after all.