Mayor Ed Murray disappointed villages in Ireland ahead of Seattle in providing Internet

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is tired of Seattle’s mediocre Internet service.

In a blog he wrote, “The City’s current high speed Internet options are not dependable enough, are cost prohibitive for many, and have few (if any) competitive options.”

He told KIRO Radio it’s time for a change.

“I don’t know if it’s a more competitive market place, that we create, whether it’s a public option instead of the private market, whether it’s a mixture of those to again create a part of the competitive marketplace,” Murray said. “But when cities like Boston are advertising themselves as a digital city and Seattle is a city that’s not fully wired – wired at a level that it should be in the 21st century, in a region that has so many technology, IT businesses, it’s absurd.”

When huge corporate providers merge to become even bigger, it’s the cities and consumers that lose.

Murray pointed to a New York Times’ piece about the potential Time Warner-Comcast merger. He said that according to the article, the merger would in no way benefit local governments or cities.

“And there aren’t a lot of tools out there for cities to create a competitive marketplace.”

One of the solutions is a public option, which was a campaign issue when Murray was a mayoral candidate.

Mayor McGinn pursued Gigabit as a provider, but the deal ultimately fell apart. Murray wants to revive the conversation, but keep all available choices on the table.

“I want us to understand how it pencils out, but in the end, I’m not going to push a single option here. I’m going to find the thing that gets us full broadband at a very high quality and a rate that’s affordable for the various groups of citizens who live in our city that have different economic capacity,” Murray said.

But what it really comes down to, according to Murray, is reputation.

Murray said that since Seattle is home to some of the most cutting edge technology in the world, it’s time our Internet service reflects that.

“We should be the leaders, Seattle and the region should be a leader in this,” said Murray. “There are complete villages in Ireland that are all WiFi. That’s a very high tech country, but it’s still odd – this is Seattle.”