MuniWireless

Novarum tested major 3G services in 13 American cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, for PC World. The test results reveal that “Verizon’s service showed a combination of speed and reliability, Sprint’s results lent credence to its ‘most dependable’ claim, and AT&T’s network showed fast upload speeds in most cities.” Surprisingly, the number of bars on your phone do not indicate the quality of the connection. Read the PC World article, A Day in the Life of 3G.

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The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Consulting Services for Initial Engagement with Private Sector Participants (No.2009- MBI-01) on behalf of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. They are seeking consulting firms that can provide services “on the development and operation of broadband infrastructure, writing requests for proposals, outreach and evaluation of industry partners and creating business plans and pricing models.” Download the RFP from the Masstech website. Responses are due by 15:00 on 8 July 2009. They…

Not very patriotic, is it, especially during the week of the Fourth of July? The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the agency charged with administering the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), known to most people as the broadband stimulus package, has granted a limited exception to the Buy American provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for certain types of equipment required in broadband deployments.

People who receive grants to deploy broadband networks from the NTIA…

I receive emails from time to time asking if I know of studies that show the economic benefits of broadband. I know I’ve read some of them but I can never remember any one in particular. Today I came across a site that lists a few studies done in Europe, Asia and the US. For example, there is a study that investigates the effect of high-speed broadband on Korea’s economy and one on broadband in North Carolina. To see the…

NYCwireless, a non-profit organization founded in 2001 that enables free, public Wi-Fi access, has posted its response to the NY Parks RFI. Here is an excerpt from their response concerning the city’s unwise insistence on funding the network through advertising:

NYCwireless fundamentally believes and the industry has seen countless times (including the companies MetroFi and EarthLink, and cities San Francisco and Portland, for example) that Ad-based business models are unsustainable for individual hotspots and even reasonable sized hotspot networks. If DoITT and…

This is an Alvarion white paper entitled “Muni Wireless and the Safe City: Municipal Wireless Networks for Safety, Security and Prosperity.” Please download it from Scribd:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16258574/Using-wireless-networks-to-improve-public-safety-in-cities

Abstract:

Large-scale metro area networks are becoming an increasingly important tool in providing public services and ensuring public safety and security. Ubiquitous broadband networks have not only proven to be an effective way to support the growing data, voice and video communications needs throughout an entire metropolitan area; they have become a critical element enabling the…