[CWN-Summit] atlanta

Mon Dec 20 02:57:42 CST 2004

forgive me if it's already been reported. i don't like their paid model. this 
won't be a success.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: [onshore-chat] Atlanta to provide municipal Wi-Fi
Date: Tuesday 14 December 2004 09:36 am
From: Steve Kent <stevek at onshore.com>
To: chat at onshore.com

Wi-Fi network could become nation's largest
By Ryan Mahoney
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2004

Atlanta's ambitious plan to create the nation's biggest citywide Wi-Fi
network is no longer up in the air.

This month, the entire first and second floors of City Hall, including the
council chamber and offices, will become one big wireless hotspot. By
March 2005, the concourses, atrium and other public areas of
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will follow suit after
months of delays.

>From there, the network will expand to additional municipal buildings,

parks and -- in a notable departure from other cities' Wi-Fi (short for
wireless fidelity) rollouts -- office buildings, apartments, hotels,
convention centers and other properties under a unique public-private
partnership.

Proponents say the system, known as Atlanta FastPass, will let Atlanta
compete with cities traditionally viewed as more Wi-Fi friendly -- like
San Francisco and Seattle -- attracting tech-savvy businesses, workers and
tourists to the area who want to access the Internet and corporate
intranets on the go.

And because it is not actually run by the city and should work in
conjunction with major telecom providers' own Wi-Fi networks, it also
could avoid legal challenges facing municipalities in states from Florida
to Pennsylvania.
A Relevant idea

FastPass is the latest creation of Jeff Levy and his newest venture,
Biltmore Communications Inc. Levy is best known as the founder of Internet
tracking firm RelevantKnowledge Inc. and he once ran the now-defunct
eHatchery LLC incubator.

Founded in late 2001 as Open Point Networks Inc., Biltmore's primary line
of business is providing broadband services, including Wi-Fi, to Atlanta
businesses and residences. The idea for FastPass was born when Levy
realized he could link his customers' hotspots together, with their
permission, to create a larger network accessible to all of them -- and
the public -- through a unified login.

He now has 60 private hotspots on the FastPass network, including many not
installed by Biltmore -- from the Georgia World Congress Center to law
firm Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP -- plus hundreds more at Georgia Tech
and Georgia State University. In fact, Biltmore boasts more wireless
access points than any other Atlanta provider. Directory service JiWire
Inc. lists 229 in Atlanta and 71,145 worldwide.

"We wanted a way for guests (persons other than Tech students or
employees) to use Wi-Fi in areas where we have public spaces, like for
conferences," said Ron Hutchins, Tech's chief technology officer. "I liked
Jeff's vision."

Visitors to Tech's campus pay $7.95 a day to use the network, but fees
vary across the FastPass system depending on who owns the hotspots, and
owners share a portion of the revenue with Biltmore. Discounted weekly and
monthly passes are available in some places, and the company is speaking
with national Wi-Fi providers like T-Mobile and Boingo about getting their
users on the system.

"We want to bring in the private sector; not just coffee shops but law
firms, accounting firms," Levy said. "I believe you'll see the Cokes and
Coxes get on the bandwagon once the city's up and running."

His company's contract of up to five years with the city will be at the
center of the FastPass system. Mayor Shirley Franklin's office has long
desired to make Atlanta competitive on Wi-Fi, said city chief information
officer Abe Kani, but the process didn't really begin in earnest until a
request for proposals went out last year.

Biltmore won the account in October and has been installing wireless
equipment at City Hall and a separate wired network to support it. The
city pays nothing upfront and will get 40 percent of the revenue from
users who log into FastPass on city property and 10 percent from those who
sign in elsewhere on the network. Pricing on city property is still
undetermined, but could be as low as $4 a day.

"The new city courts could be next," Kani said. "City Hall East and
Woodruff Park are on the top of the list."

Atlanta could reap $5 million over the life of the deal, with the first
$100,000 annually to be invested in information technology and most of the
rest going to the general fund. Councilman H. Lamar Willis, himself a
technology buff, has drafted a resolution in support of the program.
Airport-bound

FastPass is also bound for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Airport, which is wrapping up an $11 million technology infrastructure
upgrade. Once Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS) finishes laying
down a new airport-wide fiber-optic backbone, the local arm of Metuchen,
N.J.-based Sita Corp. will add the wireless component and Biltmore will
bring the airport into its network.

Hartsfield-Jackson was to have been fully Wi-Fi enabled this fall, but a
protest by one of the contractors competing with Sita delayed the project
until March, said airport chief information officer Lance Lyttle. FastPass
pricing at Hartsfield-Jackson has not yet been determined, but Lyttle said
other airports are charging $3 to $9 a day.

The entire FastPass system could still be held up by an entirely different
sort of delay, however. With several large cities unveiling plans for
citywide Wi-Fi networks over the past few months, big telecom companies
like Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) have blasted their efforts as
unfair competition and pushed for state-level legislation banning the
practice.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that such legislation is legal. BellSouth,
which is testing Wi-Fi service in Charlotte, N.C., has no immediate plans
to oppose the FastPass system, according to spokeswoman LeAnn Boucher.

Paul Arne, a partner with law firm Morris, Manning & Martin LLP, said that
a challenge could still arise. Arne also said he thought Wi-Fi rates might
have to drop significantly to encourage more than occasional use.

In the meantime, Atlanta's 3rd Wave Inc., which recently changed its name
to Ripple Inc., has amassed 55 hotspots metrowide since the start of 2004.
Companies pay 3rd Wave to set up Wi-Fi at their place of business and let
their customers log on for free.

"I think it [for pay Wi-Fi] will quickly become usurped by those that want
to offer it for free." said 3rd Wave founder Mike Landman. "It's becoming
an expectation for customers, like having a bathroom."

_____________________________________
Steven Kent
Senior Network Engineer
onShore, Inc.
http://www.onshore.com

_______________________________________________
Chat mailing list
Chat at lists.onshore.com
http://lists.onshore.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/chat

!DSPAM:41bf092e93054289931073!

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----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: [onshore-chat] Atlanta to provide municipal Wi-Fi
Date: Tuesday 14 December 2004 06:53 pm
From: Matt Isleb <misleb at onshore.com>
To: chat at ns0.onshore.com
Cc: chat at onshore.com

Has anyone looked into the "Wi-Fi polution" aspects to these types of
projects? I mean, what does it do to the already limited spectrum for
private Wi-Fi?

On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 09:36:39AM -0600, Steve Kent wrote:
> Wi-Fi network could become nation's largest
> By Ryan Mahoney
> Atlanta Business Chronicle
> Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Dec. 12, 2004
>
> Atlanta's ambitious plan to create the nation's biggest citywide Wi-Fi
> network is no longer up in the air.
>
> This month, the entire first and second floors of City Hall, including the
> council chamber and offices, will become one big wireless hotspot. By
> March 2005, the concourses, atrium and other public areas of
> Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will follow suit after
> months of delays.
>
> >From there, the network will expand to additional municipal buildings,
>
> parks and -- in a notable departure from other cities' Wi-Fi (short for
> wireless fidelity) rollouts -- office buildings, apartments, hotels,
> convention centers and other properties under a unique public-private
> partnership.
>
> Proponents say the system, known as Atlanta FastPass, will let Atlanta
> compete with cities traditionally viewed as more Wi-Fi friendly -- like
> San Francisco and Seattle -- attracting tech-savvy businesses, workers and
> tourists to the area who want to access the Internet and corporate
> intranets on the go.
>
> And because it is not actually run by the city and should work in
> conjunction with major telecom providers' own Wi-Fi networks, it also
> could avoid legal challenges facing municipalities in states from Florida
> to Pennsylvania.
> A Relevant idea
>
> FastPass is the latest creation of Jeff Levy and his newest venture,
> Biltmore Communications Inc. Levy is best known as the founder of Internet
> tracking firm RelevantKnowledge Inc. and he once ran the now-defunct
> eHatchery LLC incubator.
>
> Founded in late 2001 as Open Point Networks Inc., Biltmore's primary line
> of business is providing broadband services, including Wi-Fi, to Atlanta
> businesses and residences. The idea for FastPass was born when Levy
> realized he could link his customers' hotspots together, with their
> permission, to create a larger network accessible to all of them -- and
> the public -- through a unified login.
>
> He now has 60 private hotspots on the FastPass network, including many not
> installed by Biltmore -- from the Georgia World Congress Center to law
> firm Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP -- plus hundreds more at Georgia Tech
> and Georgia State University. In fact, Biltmore boasts more wireless
> access points than any other Atlanta provider. Directory service JiWire
> Inc. lists 229 in Atlanta and 71,145 worldwide.
>
> "We wanted a way for guests (persons other than Tech students or
> employees) to use Wi-Fi in areas where we have public spaces, like for
> conferences," said Ron Hutchins, Tech's chief technology officer. "I liked
> Jeff's vision."
>
> Visitors to Tech's campus pay $7.95 a day to use the network, but fees
> vary across the FastPass system depending on who owns the hotspots, and
> owners share a portion of the revenue with Biltmore. Discounted weekly and
> monthly passes are available in some places, and the company is speaking
> with national Wi-Fi providers like T-Mobile and Boingo about getting their
> users on the system.
>
> "We want to bring in the private sector; not just coffee shops but law
> firms, accounting firms," Levy said. "I believe you'll see the Cokes and
> Coxes get on the bandwagon once the city's up and running."
>
> His company's contract of up to five years with the city will be at the
> center of the FastPass system. Mayor Shirley Franklin's office has long
> desired to make Atlanta competitive on Wi-Fi, said city chief information
> officer Abe Kani, but the process didn't really begin in earnest until a
> request for proposals went out last year.
>
> Biltmore won the account in October and has been installing wireless
> equipment at City Hall and a separate wired network to support it. The
> city pays nothing upfront and will get 40 percent of the revenue from
> users who log into FastPass on city property and 10 percent from those who
> sign in elsewhere on the network. Pricing on city property is still
> undetermined, but could be as low as $4 a day.
>
> "The new city courts could be next," Kani said. "City Hall East and
> Woodruff Park are on the top of the list."
>
> Atlanta could reap $5 million over the life of the deal, with the first
> $100,000 annually to be invested in information technology and most of the
> rest going to the general fund. Councilman H. Lamar Willis, himself a
> technology buff, has drafted a resolution in support of the program.
> Airport-bound
>
> FastPass is also bound for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
> Airport, which is wrapping up an $11 million technology infrastructure
> upgrade. Once Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS) finishes laying
> down a new airport-wide fiber-optic backbone, the local arm of Metuchen,
> N.J.-based Sita Corp. will add the wireless component and Biltmore will
> bring the airport into its network.
>
> Hartsfield-Jackson was to have been fully Wi-Fi enabled this fall, but a
> protest by one of the contractors competing with Sita delayed the project
> until March, said airport chief information officer Lance Lyttle. FastPass
> pricing at Hartsfield-Jackson has not yet been determined, but Lyttle said
> other airports are charging $3 to $9 a day.
>
> The entire FastPass system could still be held up by an entirely different
> sort of delay, however. With several large cities unveiling plans for
> citywide Wi-Fi networks over the past few months, big telecom companies
> like Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) have blasted their efforts as
> unfair competition and pushed for state-level legislation banning the
> practice.
>
> The U.S. Supreme Court has held that such legislation is legal. BellSouth,
> which is testing Wi-Fi service in Charlotte, N.C., has no immediate plans
> to oppose the FastPass system, according to spokeswoman LeAnn Boucher.
>
> Paul Arne, a partner with law firm Morris, Manning & Martin LLP, said that
> a challenge could still arise. Arne also said he thought Wi-Fi rates might
> have to drop significantly to encourage more than occasional use.
>
> In the meantime, Atlanta's 3rd Wave Inc., which recently changed its name
> to Ripple Inc., has amassed 55 hotspots metrowide since the start of 2004.
> Companies pay 3rd Wave to set up Wi-Fi at their place of business and let
> their customers log on for free.
>
> "I think it [for pay Wi-Fi] will quickly become usurped by those that want
> to offer it for free." said 3rd Wave founder Mike Landman. "It's becoming
> an expectation for customers, like having a bathroom."
>
>
> _____________________________________
> Steven Kent
> Senior Network Engineer
> onShore, Inc.
> http://www.onshore.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chat mailing list
> Chat at lists.onshore.com
> http://lists.onshore.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/chat

_______________________________________________
Chat mailing list
Chat at lists.onshore.com
http://lists.onshore.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/chat

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