Letter to the Editor:

USA TODAY endorses the concept of cities spending scarce taxpayer resources to build wireless networks to compete with private high-speed Internet providers. Yet, the newspaper appears to ignore the perils that go along with "socializing" communications services ("Internet quest gets squashed," Our view, Who gets broadband debate, Tuesday).

To start with, building fiber networks and providing high-tech services are inherently risky business ventures. Hundreds of companies led by talented entrepreneurs and dedicated engineers have gone bankrupt trying. Does anyone really believe that cities have the technological expertise to do the job?

Even if cities blindly forge ahead, their taxpayer-financed wireless networks will crowd out private investment. In a world where last year's cellphone is hopelessly obsolete, the last thing needed is a public Internet monopoly.

America's communications industry is finally emerging from a century of overregulation, delivering innovations that were unimaginable just a decade ago.

The right course for the government to follow is to free private industry from regulations that restrict the deployment of broadband and other next-generation services. But if we want the Internet to look like public housing, by all means, let the government run the show.

Sonia Arrison
Director of technology studies
Pacific Research Institute
San Francisco