Houston has released a draft for city-wide WiFi according to Save Muni Wireless. Here are some interesting details from the blog entry:

 

The City’s vision is to apply ubiquitous, low-cost wireless Internet access as a foundation for the City of Houston to become the most efficient, effective and responsive city government in the nation—while stimulating economic development and promoting digital inclusion for low-income and disadvantaged residents.

 

One remarkable part of this proposal is that it explicitly embraces the concept of "net neutrality". The City will require that the operator open up the network to wholesale service, which would allow any ISP to participate. Chalk that up to another exciting innovation that’s being driven by muni networks.

 

It would seem that in the long run, service providers will see more and more competition from the cities.