The city of Philadelphia wants to offer low-cost WiFi service to its residents. ‘We looked at it as a way to be a city, literally, of the 21st century,’’ according to Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. ‘‘We wanted to bridge the digital divide for residents who wouldn’t have access to the Internet, particularly schoolchildren.’‘

Sounds like a politician to be proud of, doesn’t it? And Street isn’t alone. I’ve reported here on other cities and smaller towns planning to offer WiFi. Not surprisingly, the trend doesn’t sit well with phone companies who traditionally offer Internet services. In fact, according to a Chicago Sun-Times article, lobbyists for the telecom industry have been working for a while now to put a stop to it.

If Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signs a bill originally conceived as a proposal by telecom lobbyists, the state will join about a dozen others “that regulate public-sector telecommunications projects or ban it outright,” according to the article. “Such laws have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.”