MuniWireless » City Initiatives

Will better network management help Lompoc attract and keep customers?

Esme Vos — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:18:40 +0000

Lompoc, California is trying to make its citywide wireless broadband service work harder by attracting and keeping more customers. The city has replaced its previous network management system with a new one from Aptilo and claims that Aptilo’s system now allows to city to manage its network better, including being able identify where problems occur, when customers call in. The city has also stopped using outside firms to manage the network. Now, instead of needing 4000 subscribers to break even, the city only needs 2000 subscribers per month. It has already reached 1000 (those on a 48-hour $5 plan and on a $16 per month with two thirds of the subscribers being monthly users).

Previous articles about Lompoc:

Lompoc network not a failure, says city council member

Lompoc launches citywide wireless broadband network

Hartford abandons citywide Wi-Fi dreams

Esme Vos — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Hartford, Connecticut has abandoned its plan to cover the city with wireless broadband service. Instead, it will focus on maintaining the existing network which is available in the Blue Hills neighborhood and certain parts of downtown. Hartford had embarked on a $5.8 million plan to unwire the city, primarily to bring inexpensive or free Internet access to low-income residents. But lack of demand from residents, coupled with rising costs, have forced the city to rethink the entire project.

Several points raised in this Hartford Business Journal article made me think about similar “do-good” projects in other places:

(1) The city says that the residents are using their Internet connections for less ambitious purposes than job hunting (i.e. they’re using it for entertainment). Why is this surprising to the mayor and why does he think that people will use the network to do only boring things?

A friend of mine who help set up wireless networks in Central America for a non-profit organization observed that young people in the villages were using it, not for educational purposes, but for IM’ing kids in other Spanish-speaking countries and for viewing porn. In addition, as those kids saw that life in the big cities was far more exciting than in their villages, they wanted to leave.

(2) Hartford purchased “900 low-cost Internet-ready computers to sell to Blue Hills residents, but only about 400 sold at $150 each. The rest were donated to schools.”

Why weren’t the low-income residents interested in buying $150 computers for themselves and their children? Given the rising cost of food and petrol, perhaps these people did not even have $150 to spare. Or maybe they prefer to spend it on things they consider more important, things that upper-middle class people don’t like to hear low-income people buying (especially with upper-middle class people’s tax money): lottery tickets, cigarettes, liquor, cable TV service.

There’s a limit to which one can mould society and people’s behavior. You may want them to put Internet access and computers on the top of their wish list for their children, but they have other plans.

(3) Blue Hills residents had trouble getting access to the network when leaves appeared on trees so the city had to install more wireless nodes. Anyone who has studied basic physics (wave mechanics) would have foreseen this. Why is it that in so many city networks, the network providers – people who supposedly have some expertise in wireless - always act surprised by the most rudimentary laws of physics that operate on this planet?

(4) Finally, Hartford plans to charge for the service because they can’t keep giving away access for free. Yet, they admit that they cannot charge for access and are astonished that demand for Wi-Fi access has been so tepid.

Here’s what another friend told me a few days ago about wired broadband in the United States. He says the DSL and cable Internet providers are very disappointed with the limited demand for broadband service — not in places like San Francisco and Silicon Valley where many tech people live, but in average communities across the US. People just aren’t that interested in broadband service and all that it can bring. They just don’t care. I find this hard to believe and I don’t have statistics to show but the providers say that if demand were much higher, they would invest more in their networks, provide higher speeds, and lower prices.

Previous articles about Hartford:

Hartford, Connecticut launches wireless broadband pilot program

Network 1 signs up eight cities for muni Wi-Fi service

Esme Vos — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:59:34 +0000

Network 1 Communications, a wireless ISP, will be bringing wireless broadband service to the following communities in the St. Louis area: Ballwin, Chesterfield, Olivette, Creve Coeur, Maryland Heights, Hazelwood, Glendale and Arnold. They join Granite City, Cottleville, Florissant, Crestwood, Kirkwood, O’Fallon, St. Paul and Dardenne Prairie. Network 1 charges between $20 and $50 per month for service.

Wireless video surveillance gains popularity, but it is effective?

Esme Vos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:00:21 +0000

I don’t know whether to be thrilled or appalled every time I read (or post articles) about the growing popularity of wireless video surveillance in our cities. Yes, police officers now have additional ways to catch nasty people. But the growing need for these surveillance cameras is disturbing in itself and says that we are living in an increasingly lawless, violent society. What next — walled cities with electronic moats to keep out the undesirables?

Back to the story. Buffalo, New York is one of the US cities that has installed wireless video surveillance and it appears to be quite popular even among residents. In May 2007, Buffalo issued an RFP for a municipal wireless network and security cameras. The city paid $3 million for the wireless camera network and feels it is money well spent. The scalability of the network is one of its most attractive features (which leads one to ask, what happens when there are cameras everywhere watching everything). Buffalo is not alone in its love affair with video surveillance.

Recently I interviewed Lt. Tony Crawford of the Dallas Police Department about the city’s network of wireless video surveillance cameras (read the interview here). What surprised me was this: I thought that police officers would be very excited about these cameras but that’s not the case. They were skeptical about the cameras’ ability to help, but later on, when they realized that the cameras did not unduly disrupt their set ways of policing, they dropped their opposition. The department is also sensitive to privacy concerns of residents in the areas where they have installed the cameras so that they have designed them not to pan up to the windows of apartment buildings.

Meanwhile in the UK, police say that CCTV has been a fiasco: only 3% of crimes have been solved through CCTV.

In the meantime, VideoIQ, a video surveillance company, is getting $10 million in venture capital funding.

Post your thoughts below.

Coshocton County, Ohio issues RFP for wireless broadband network

Esme Vos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:05:57 +0000

Coshocton County, Ohio has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the construction of a wireless broadband network to serve businesses, residents, and specified County owned facilities throughout the county. The primary goal of this RFP is to find a provider that can deliver wireless broadband access to parts of the county that do not have broadband. In addition, the county will use the network for its own operations.

Proposals should be submitted to Coshocton County Commissioners Office, 401 ½ Main St, Coshocton, OH 43812. Deadline for submitting proposals to Coshocton County offices is Friday, August 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM local time. Bid packages can be picked up during regular business hours at 401 ½ Main St, Coshocton, OH 43812 or at the Columbus offices of SZD Whiteboard, 250 West Street, Columbus, Oh. 43215. Ask for Jeff Gamrath.

Download the Coshocton RFP (in PDF format) from Muniwireless.

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NOTE: You can join the Muniwireless RFP Alerts service by emailing us at info[at]muniwireless.com. We will send you an email with the RFP notice or documents as soon as they come in.

Wi-Fi service as a utility in Tabor, Iowa

Esme Vos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:29:43 +0000

The town of Tabor, Iowa (pop. 1000) will be offering citywide Wi-Fi service to its residents.The town will simply add Wi-Fi service to the municipal utility bill (which includes water and sewer fees). The city is paying Efanz, a service provider based in Omaha (Nebraska), $240,000 for two years (approx. $11,000 per month). It is not surprising to see smaller towns in rural areas deploying Wi-Fi service in their communities. Indeed, it is in places where people are still on dial-up that demand for wireless broadband – WiMAX or Wi-Fi – is strong.

Related news on rural wireless broadband:

Racine County Wi-Fi: providing access where it’s really needed

Craven County, North Carolina goes wireless: rural Wi-Fi connects schools, towns

Cambria County, Pennsylvania launches countywide wireless network

Delray Beach, Florida looks for Wi-Fi alternatives

Esme Vos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:46:53 +0000

Delray Beach, Florida is still looking for alternatives to the Wi-Fi service that E-Path Communications was supposed to have delivered. Two months ago, the city canceled its contract with E-Path after endless delays. E-Path is also the service provider that Nassau and Suffolk counties (NY) hired to deploy a countywide wireless broadband network (probably never going to happen).

This week, the city has organized a special commission workshop to listen to proposals by AccessDelray, a local non-profit organization that promotes community broadband. The city is not optimistic that anything will happen soon in Delray Beach. It has no funds to commit to a citywide Wi-Fi network.

Wireless networks and hurricanes

Esme Vos — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:23:08 +0000

It’s hurricane season again so time to figure out how communications networks can be beefed up to ensure that they survive these storms. Projectsafety.org recently demonstrated how a network can survive a hurricane. Larry Karisny sent me the following press release regarding a demo they did at a recent Hurricane Preparedness Expo:

John’s Pass Hurricane Preparedness Expo demonstrated high tech and low tech hurricane preparedness

A Hurricane Preparedness Expo at a waterway created by a Hurricane called John’s Pass in Madeira Beach demonstrated the only two communication systems that survived Hurricane Katrina. The Sponsor of the Expo, ProjectSafety, demonstrated a broadband wireless network put up by CitiWiFi in a half hour just before a big squall hit the John’s Pass area. Neil Lauritsen, Emergency Coordinator for Auxiliary Communications Services (ACR) and Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) brought in a ham radio system driving it in with a van he calls “porcupine” because of all the antennas on it. Lowe’s came in with gas and propane generators powering the Expo while keeping everyone cool with outside air conditions.

With all of John’s Pass connected with alternate power, wireless broadband and a ham radio being able to connect to our troops in Iraq, the Hurricane Preparedness Expo demonstrated real world of power and communications survivability after the devastation of an event like a hurricane. “There are two things you can be pretty much be assured of after a hurricane: there is no power and there is no wireless communications.” said Karisny. “Our intent in the Hurricane Preparedness Expo was to give a real word look at what to expect after a hurricane and demonstrate what power and communications systems survived past catastrophes and which ones didn’t.”

While ARES connected other Ham Radio operators all over the world with the ability of connecting to the Space Station, ProjectSafety connected to a broadband wireless connection showing streaming videos of communication systems that did and did not survive Hurricane Katrina. The communication networks and cell phone networks in the greater New Orleans region failed. The networks that survived were the low power Ham Radio and WiFi Municipal wireless networks. ProjectSafety offered video statements from city officials all over our nation making very clear what communications networks survived their particular catastrophic events.

There are two very simple reasons why cell and emergency wireless communications systems do not survive hurricanes. Wireless communication towers are blown down or twisted and the large power sources required that run these communications systems are normally underneath the tower and they get flooded. No power, no communication antenna, no wireless network.

City of Madeira Beach District 1 Commissioner Terry where John’s Pass Village is located said ” these municipal wireless networks are not only important for our first responders, they are a critical requirement for people coordinating supply logistics, insurance adjusters putting in claims and just your average citizen coming back. The longer it takes to get these operations in place the longer it will take us to rebuild. We need to of course to prepare before a hurricane but we also need to think about what we need to do after a hurricane. We can’t rebuild unless we have a way to communicate. “

The Federal Government recently had a wireless 700 MHz spectrum bid for a national wireless public safety frequency. The one bid for the spectrum auction was well below the required bid requirement. Even if the spectrum was awarded, it would take over five years to build the national wireless public safety network. Our nation is now left with few alternatives

ProjectSafety has had a solution to the emergency communications network problem defined in a white paper published since late 2002. The business and technology model called Community Network Integration (CNI) offers public safety and transportation primary access to a low power dedicated short range network while also serving the general public. This design offers multiple government agencies and the general public the ability to share the cost of a single wireless network. These public/private shared models were stressed by Emergency Communication officials in Tallahassee as being the only way to get the technology needed or first responders under the state’s current budgetary requirements.

”With hurricane season coming and with most communities not having survivable communications systems in place, we need to start to listen to the facts of past catastrophes and start building survivable and interoperable communication systems,” said Karisny. Local examples of these municipal wireless networks are like the ones in the City of Treasure Island. What you see being done by companies like CitiWiFi in Treasure Island is the first step in offering basic survivable and interoperable communication services to municipals. ProjectSafety can use these same core services while adding licensed public safety primary 4.9 GHz and transportation 5.9 GHz spectrum while future proofing the wireless networks with hundreds of applications serving both the public and private sector markets. Because CitiWiFi builds their own radios, they give ProjectSafety the ability of adding testing and deploying new technologies as needed. “

ProjectSafety wasn’t just telling a story at the Expo, they are pursuing grant funding for the Pinellas County beach cities though Progress Energy, Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice to test and deploy new power and communication technologies that could survive a hurricane. As a not-for-profit, the organization ProjectSafety is requesting that even your average day citizen__ contribute to this important life saving communication network.

“As a citizen you can also participate in ProjectSafety’s Community Integration model. In fact your contribution may be the only way you or a public safety official would be able to communication after a hurricane. The facts are in, and we need to find the funding and the leadership to start building these life saving alternate power sources and wireless communication systems in our communities. The storms we had just before and after the Hurricane Preparedness Expo at John’s Pass was just reminders of what could be coming”.

ProjectSafety.org
Larry Karisny

Aurora, Illinois issues RFI for citywide Wi-Fi network

Esme Vos — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:42:22 +0000

Aurora, Illinois has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking responses from companies that may be interested in deploying a free or low-cost citywide Wi-Fi network. Last month, MetroFi told the city that it would shut down the city’s Wi-Fi network because the costs were too high and the return on investment too uncertain. Only 20 percent of Aurora has Wi-Fi coverage (via MetroFi’s network). The purpose of the RFI is to gather information about the kinds of services that a provider might be able to offer Aurora and the costs of providing those services.

It will be difficult for Aurora to find a provider who is willing to set up a network without any payment from the city or other large institutions. Philadelphia managed to resuscitate their citywide Wi-Fi network because new investors stepped in, but those investors also said they would target large institutions such as hospitals and colleges, as anchor tenants. Minneapolis and Riverside (California) have running networks but the cities pay the service providers an annual fee for municipal use of the networks.

Go to the Aurora, Illinois website to download the RFI: http://www.aurora-il.org/

Link to RFI (PDF format): Aurora Muni RFI

Wireless Washtenaw delayed, but not gone

Esme Vos — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:55:56 +0000

No one is surprised by news of yet another municipal wireless project delayed. In this case it’s Wireless Washtenaw county in Michigan, whose provider, 20/20 Communications, needs $10 million to finish the network. They have already spent between $2 million and $3 million. They say they are not pulling out of the project (like MetroFi and EarthLink has done in other places). Indeed, 20/20 Communications has paying customers and a waiting list of 3000 people. According to this article, Livingston County has plans for a countywide network, also using MichTel Communications. I wonder if that will ever go through given that the network will cost $50 million to deploy. Last week, Oakland County (also in Michigan) decided to put their network expansion plans on hold because MichTel Communications, their partner, could not find investors willing to put up more funds for the network.