Should cities be building WI-FI networks?

Found an interesting story on Slashdot about a fairly hot topic these days, muncipalities building their own wi-fi networks to give everyone wireless hi speed internet that competes with private companies. Competition can be a good thing, but should cities or counties really be competing with private companies that specialize in such networks? Its hard to say if its really a good deal for the people since bonds are usually issued to pay for the project, and its often years before anyone will know for sure if the project will pay for itself.

But it brings up an important question, should government be competing with private industry? I would be okay with it perhaps if there was no service available or the company there had some serious service problems but other than that, not sure its fair since governments have tax revenue to support them.

Here is the article, but a warning that if you clink on the link to the report, its about 40 pages long (from the New Millenium Research Council or NMRC): Its worth noting that the NMRC has ties to lobbying for telco's so take that for what its worth- also according to Slashdot)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/04/1522223&tid=193