Analyzing Long Island’s strategy
When Long Island announced its municipal broadband strategy yesterday, many of us at MuniWireless.com were scratching our heads. There are some great things about the strategy, but we wonder if Long Island is focusing too much on public access and not enough on municipal broadband applications that deliver ROI.When Long Island announced its municipal broadband strategy yesterday, some us at MuniWireless.com were scratching our heads. There are some great things about the strategy, but we wonder if Long Island is focusing too much on universal public access and not enough on municipal broadband applications that drive ROI.
First, the details: Long Island’s two counties — Suffolk and Nassau — have selected e-Path Communications and its team of KeySpan Communications and Cisco Systems Inc., to build, own and operate a wireless broadband communications network to provide residents, businesses, municipal governments and visitors ubiquitous service throughout Long Island.
The 750-square-mile network, according to e-Path, will:
- Ensure universal affordable outdoor wireless broadband access for all residents.
- Improve the services provided by county and local governments.
- Stimulate economic development and promote job creation.
- Enhance education and improve interaction between teachers, students and parents.
- Encourage competition by introducing an alternate method for broadband service.
The counties, e-Path adds, will likely benefit from:
- Enhanced healthcare through telemedicine and remote patient care.
- Improved the experience for individuals vacationing on Long Island and those visiting Long Island for Business reasons.
- More innovative broadband solutions for consumers.
- Telecommuting and reduced strain on Long Island’s roads and infrastructure.
We’re reaching out to e-Path and the other players for additional analysis. Our most pressing questions include:
- Why not start small? Big WiFi initiatives focused on public access are struggling. Small initiatives focused on one or two core applications — like public safety or video surveillance in high-crime areas — generally are performing well.
- Why lead with public broadband access? Many Long Island residents have the financial means for existing broadband services. Municipal applications that deliver ROI could provide a more reasonable stepping stone to affordable public access.
- Who is actually going to pay to do the infrastructure build-out?
- Will certain departments in Nassau and Suffolk Counties serve as anchor tenants? (we sure hope so)
The Long Island network has plenty of potential, but it also faces plenty of questions. We’ll be speaking with the key players in the hours and the days ahead.
If you have additional questions about the Long Island network, feel free to post comments and we’ll be sure to pose them as we reach out to the key players.
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KeySpan is the local power company, isn’t it? Local utilities have been key participants in many broadband infrastructure projects in the US and Europe. I’m curious to see if they use it for their utilities business as well.
The question that everyone needs to be asking concerns ePath’s financial viability. Has any financial due diligence been done on them? Or is this a situation where their consortium was the only one left standing after other parties backed out?
It makes me wiggle in my seat to see another freebie network going in especially with the recent announcements by Earthlink and their strategy modifications.
So, given that E-Path knows the issues surrounding Earthlink yet they are taking on a model (or at least announcing one) mirroring that of E-Link, I am willing to bet that there is more to be told.
In my opinion, it comes by way of the partnerships that have been made. Cisco and their recent announcement regarding equipment designed for applications and Keyspan being the utility could point to a massive meter reading project. Perhaps revenues are not just generated between integrator, public citizen and municipality. Could there be a model that develops muni networks for the benefit of two private groups?
some of the questions about how the electric utility is structured on Long Island vis-a-vis the wi-fi project are answered here:
http://www.cedx.com/2007/08/some-answers-to.html
Here are some very quick “back of the napkin” calculations, so please take them for what they are.
$200,000/mile average ($150MM/750)
$180,000/mile for hardware assuming a 10% installation cost
$ 1,245,615.13/month for 15 years at 5.750% with no allowance for equipment failure, upgrades or OPEX.
This will be exciting to watch.
so much fiber being run: Cablevision, Verizon, now KeySpan, possbile Sprint/Nextel as fiber wired links to towers. So much redundancy, so much politics–ridiculous. And now the 700mhz spectrum allocation coming up with national emergency services usages over what: fiber, WiMax, etc. so much wasted money with the reduncancy.