In a move aimed at offering free Internet access to hundreds of thousands of Angelenos, the City Council yesterday proposed a plan to rent out city infrastructure to Internet service providers that agree to wire the city with high-speed broadband and a level of free Internet.

“When it comes to broadband, we pay too much for too little, when you compare to nations around the world,” said Councilman Bob Blumenfield. “We also have a problem with the digital divide. The gap between the (Internet) haves and the have-nots is widening.”

In exchange for leasing space on light poles, city buildings and even the Department of Water & Power’s fiber optic network, ISPs would be required to provide a level of free Internet access, including free Wi-Fi, to the city at large. The City Council estimates that 30 percent of L.A. families don’t have access to basic broadband Internet, defined as at least 5 megabits-per-second for downloads.

The cost of the basic free Internet would be borne by those paying higher fees for premium high-speed services. The council authorized a request for proposals from Internet service providers that would provide broadband speeds of 1 gigabit-per-second or faster at prices of about $70 per month. That cost is a guideline, not a price cap.

Blumenfield said some ISPs had expressed concerns that running telecommunication cables in the city, already an expensive project, was made even more expensive by the cumbersome city permitting process required for using government-owned infrastructure.

“Permitting, I didn’t realize how valuable that was until some of our respondents said so,” said Blumenfield. “The cost of bureaucracy was becoming an impediment. Making sure our bureaucracy was not an impediment has an actual value.”

As a result, ISPs that offer the free Wi-Fi will be able to take part in an expedited permitting process and gain access to city infrastructure.

Other cities, such as Chattanooga, Tenn., have tried to juice Internet speeds and expand basic Internet to poor communities by installing their own high-speed, government-operated Internet broadband, but Blumenfield doesn’t think that approach is right for Los Angeles.

“We can’t and we shouldn’t have to bear the whole cost burden of building out a full telecom on our own, but we can’t sit around and wait for someone else to do it,” said Blumenfield. “When I look at our digital infrastructure to me it’s just as important as our physical infrastructure. When we have a low-speed network compared to other cities then people and businesses don’t want to come here.”

The City of L.A.’s Information Technology Agency estimates it will take $4 billion to $6 billion in private investment to fully build out the City Council’s request for proposals.

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.