Advocates of municipal wireless gained a powerful ally as Intel Corp. announced its opposition to legislation, such as the bill that was recently passed in Pennsylvania that turned future of municipal broadband and wireless services over to the telecoms they would compete with.
Speaking at the Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA) conference in San Jose this week, Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intels Communications Group, said the company plans to play a collaborative role in bringing together the municipalities and telecoms to work together, rather than against each other.
An Intel spokesperson noted that legislation similar to the bill passed in Pennsylvania is pending in as many as 17 other states. He called the trend “fairly disturbing.”