Gahanna and New Albany, Ohio issue joint RFP for wireless broadband network

Gahanna and New Albany, Ohio have released a joint RFP seeking a vendor to deploy a wireless broadband network that will cover both municipalities. The network will be used for public Internet access and municipal applications. Moreover, backhaul for the Wi-Fi network is a fiber optic network that the municipalities are deploying. Gahanna and New Albany, Ohio have released an RFP looking for a vendor to build a wireless broadband network to cover the two communities. Both are roughly 12 square miles in size, but Gahanna has 34,500 people, New Albany only 6,000. To download the RFP, click here.

The vendor may propose any model to create a network that delivers wireless broadband for municipal government use and public Internet access. The municipal goals include (excerpts from the RFP document):

(1) Public Service: This includes but is not limited to supporting multiple municipal applications such as wireless Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), work-order management for field personnel, automated traffic signaling and other municipal applications to better serve the public.

(2) Public Access: Each community defines public access differently although the ultimate goal for both communities is full community coverage. In Gahanna, public access includes available service at no cost (to the end user) in identified municipal locations including parks, the Creekside Development area and areas adjacent to all public facilities. In, New Albany, the eventual public access goal is service at no cost (to the end user) throughout the municipal boundaries. The short-term goal includes available service at no cost (to the end user) in identified municipal locations including parks, the newly created Arts Center and areas adjacent to all public facilities.

(3) Public Safety: This includes longer-term plans by the municipalities to leverage the network to improve the safety of the public and the safety of public safety officers by providing field personnel with better access to information.

Fiber as backhaul for the network

According to the RFP, Gahanna and New Albany are building municipal fiber-optic networks. Respondents to the RFP should include these fiber networks in planning the Wi-Fi deployment because the municipalities want to provide a certain number of fibers (to be negotiated during the contract phase) to the provider for backhaul purposes for the Wi-Fi deployment: The provider must assume that the fibers will be dark and that they will need to include the necessary hardware to light and operate the fibers as part of the overall network design.

The deadline for responses is 31 July 2007 at 3:00 pm local time.