Free wireless broadband for Sydney metro?

Australian IT reports the NSW government has announced it will move to introduce free WiFi in central and north Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wollongong and Gosford... if it wins the next State election.

Well, talk about thinking outside the square - this is certainly an election promise the state opposition could never hope to match. When your opposition is a coalition of Liberal and National parties, you'd have to offer it in the bush as well as the city, and nobody's even going to go there.

Free municipal WiFi has been a hot topic in the US for several years but this is the first I've heard of an Australian state government putting their neck out.

I look forward to a spectacular reaction from Unwired, iBurst, BigAir, and to a lesser extent, Optus and Bigpond. They've all, to a greater or lesser extent, built a business model assuming they can charge a motza for WiFi access in the Sydney metro area. Ouch!