The gubmint came up with the internet and GPS. Private industry optimized both. Likewise, it was gubmint that helped grow the transistor business in the 1950s. There is room for both gubmint and private involvement. It isn’t an all or nothing deal.
DARPA did start the large network we know as the internet. However, most of the intercommunication promoted during that era was text based. Not many people would come to the party if they were using telnet, ftp, irc as the primary protocols.
It was the advent of the PC based on integrated circuits developed by the private sector and O/S technology developed by the private sector that put a web browser on almost every desk.
Transistor technologies didn’t take off until consumer electronics developed during the late 60’s. Even vacuum tube TV’s were the norm until after 1965. It was television and radio usage that brought transistor manufacturing along.
It was Edison and Westinghouse who began the wiring of America, but government, via the TVA and the Rural Electrification project, that completed it -- similarly, Ma Bell wired much of the country, but government subsidies, via a tax on the phone bill, brought telephones to remote areas.
In both those areas, the basic principle was to let the private sector do what it can and the government do what it must. I don't see something like city wi-fi as a drastic move toward socialism -- it's an amenity, like providing parks or landscaping or more street lights, but far less expensive than those. On the other hand, cities ought to be careful not to crowd out the many private businesses that are also offering wi-fi.
My favorite analogy is companies providing restrooms and water fountains. If enough companies do it, then it's just a part of the environment and no one company spends much on it. The community benefits because it's easier for folks to spend a day shopping and dining and just enjoying the scenery.
Where private business doesn't provide enough of those amenities, I don't think it's unreasonable for the government to step in. Especially in a city like Paris, where a lot of the local culture is built around lingering at sidewalk cafés, it seems like a sensible way to keep folks around and spending.