The city owns and maintains the sub-stations, grid, poles and vaults.

Something that is not widely known is that Riverside Muncipal Utilities has deployed a city-wide fiber system. Charter Communications (the incumbent cable company) partially leases the city owned and operated fiber system to provide internet services to their Rverside customers under a separate agreement from the cable television franchise agreement. Charters equipment actually sits in the electrical cabinents throughout the city.

I believe Riverside will be the first city in the nation where the incumbent Telco and Cable company will be sharing the same infrastructure to deploy high-speed internet.

Of course, AT&T and the former SBC and Pacific Bell have their own poles within Riverside, but the approved RFP calls for AT&T to deploy using the municipal utility infrastructure.

This RFP also has a low-income requirement built in that requires free computers and no/low cost wireless cards. I have not seen that requirement in other RFP’s for city-wide Wi-Fi.

Some new things in the Riverside RFP that are worth watching in six, nine, twelve and eighteen months from deployment and look back to review if the extrea goodies have been deployed, or does the winning bidder(s) cry for mercy to the city council that they can’t provide free wireless on an ad-supported basis and the low-income component for free equipment is killing them revenue wise.

My gut tells me the bidders will be back during the contract asking for a change in terms. No evidence to support this, other than a gut feeling and you read it here first!