[CWN-Summit] Fwd: InternetWeek Article: Government Bridging The Digital Divide

[Dana Spiegel]

> From: Dana Spiegel <dana at NYCwireless.net>
> Date: August 13, 2005 12:29:23 AM EDT
> To: List-NYCwireless <nycwireless at lists.nycwireless.net>
> Subject: [nycwireless]  InternetWeek Article: Government Bridging  
> The Digital Divide
>
>
> http://www.internetweek.com/168601371
>
> Government Bridging The Digital Divide
>
> By Christopher T. Heun
> InternetWeek
>
> During the last four years, as the United States slipped from  
> fourth to 16th in the world in broadband Internet access, the major  
> telecommunications companies have been either unable or unwilling  
> to provide better connectivity. In response, many cities and towns  
> are building the high-speed wireless networks themselves.
>
> Between 250 and 300 municipalities across the country have invested  
> in the technology or begun plans to do so. One of the most recent  
> is New Haven, Conn., which said Tuesday it had hired municipal  
> broadband consultancy Civitium to begin the first steps of planning  
> a network. Civitium has also advised Houston, Portland, Miami  
> Beach, Fla., and Philadelphia, home of the nation’s most ambitious  
> project covering 135 square miles and a population of 1.5 million.
>
> Advocates say making high-speed wireless Internet access  
> affordable, and available in low-income areas that do not currently  
> have it, will bridge the digital divide and translate into improved  
> educational opportunities and economic growth. There’s also the  
> potential for police and emergency services to reduce response  
> times, and even, using remote cameras, do things like ease traffic  
> congestion and read parking meters.
>
> “A lot of cities are getting involved in this specifically because  
> they’ve been lied to and burned by the telecom companies, and  
> they’ve thrown up their hands and said enough,” says Dana Spiegel,  
> a software consultant and executive director of NYCwireless, a  
> nonprofit that has helped set up dozens of free public wireless  
> hotspots in New York City since 2001. “If a city decides for the  
> benefit of all residents that everyone should have access to  
> broadband services at an affordable rate and if Verizon  
> (Communications) or SBC (Communications) is not doing that, then  
> the city should have the right to do that."
>
> But don’t tell that to companies like Verizon, who have cried foul  
> -- and lobbied successfully in 14 states to restrict such municipal  
> wireless projects or block them outright -- claiming they’re an  
> unfair use of taxpayer money. (Philadelphia managed a last second  
> dodge from a Pennsylvania ban.) But very few cities are out to  
> become door-to-door deliverymen of subsidized Internet service. In  
> a survey of networks developed by 83 towns and cities,  
> JupiterResearch found nearly two-thirds are designed for government  
> and commercial use; only 4 percent are dedicated solely to serving  
> wireless broadband to residents and businesses. In fact, the goals  
> of municipal networks are three times as likely to be economic  
> development and IT cost savings than universal accessibility.
>
> That’s certainly the case for the city of Philadelphia, which has  
> chosen a wholesale business model. It contracts with ISPs to  
> deliver broadband to homes and businesses and uses that revenue to  
> pay the debt service on building the network and generate the cash  
> to service it. Dianah Neff, Philadelphia’s chief information  
> officer, estimates the city can save $2 million annually on telecom  
> costs and cut in half what its remote facilities pay for T1 lines.
>
> The biggest draw, though, is bringing broadband Internet to low- 
> income communities, where such a thing is rare, for about $20  
> month. “We have a vibrant downtown but we have failing  
> neighborhoods,” she says. “You can’t leave a third of your  
> population behind.”
>
> In addition to providing the link to the Internet, Philadelphia  
> will coordinate with school districts to distribute 10,000  
> computers to low-income homes in the next five years along with the  
> necessary training. Local nonprofits, paid by the city, will  
> provide tech support.
>
> That outreach is key, Neff has told the more than 100 cities who  
> have sought her advice. “The neighborhood approach, using existing  
> nonprofits that a community knows, is the best way,” she says. “You  
> can’t just go in and assume you know what a neighborhood needs.”
>
> The cost for all this? Roughly $150,000 per square mile over five  
> years is the JupiterResearch estimate, with one-third of costs  
> coming up front. JupiterResearch doesn’t paint a very rosy picture  
> when it comes to profits: just 54 percent of the initiatives will  
> break even charging $25 per user per month; that figure climbs to  
> 88 percent when the monthly fee is raised to $100.
>
> But Neff disagrees. She projects Philadelphia will spend much less,  
> about $10 million on infrastructure, financed through private  
> investment, grants and sales of taxable bonds; with total costs  
> reaching $18 million, her costs are between $70,000 to $100,000 per  
> square mile, she says. Construction will begin late next month,  
> once a broadband provider is chosen.
>
> As in Philadelphia, JupiterResearch found in its survey that a  
> little cooperation goes a long way to reduce costs and share risks.  
> Governments bring purchasing power and right of way on light poles,  
> which are great for setting up wireless antennas. ISPs can manage  
> the infrastructure and use it to extend their networks while cross- 
> selling other telecom services, such as backhaul bandwidth.
>
> Corpus Christi, Texas, which owns its network, is teaming up with  
> ISPs to offer public access. Created in 2003 for automated meter  
> reading, the network will be expanded to include building  
> inspection and computer dispatching for public safety units.
>
> In Las Vegas, local ISP Cheetah Wireless owns and operates the  
> network, and the city, as anchor tenant, trades its installation  
> crews and real estate in exchange for credits to monitor  
> intersections to reduce traffic congestion and improve public safety.
>
> Complicating matters, those cities and others may soon face a  
> different set of rules. The 1996 Telecom Act is headed for a  
> rewrite, and two Republican-proposed bills, one by Nevada Sen. John  
> Ensign and the other by Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, a former SBC  
> employee, would limit the power of municipalities to build their  
> own broadband networks. In response, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and  
> Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., have proposed a bipartisan Senate  
> bill that would protect that right.
>
> Cable and DSL providers control nearly 98 percent of the  
> residential and small business broadband market, and yet the  
> Federal Communications Commission, which recently eliminated “open  
> access” requirements for DSL companies to lease their lines,  
> ignores the lack of competition, according to the media reform  
> group Free Press. “We don’t have competitive broadband markets,”  
> says Ben Scott, Free Press policy director.
> In a report released this week by Free Press, the Consumer  
> Federation of America and Consumers Union, the groups recommend  
> that Congress ensure open access to all high-speed communications  
> networks, remove restrictions on public entities that seek to offer  
> broadband services to consumers and open up more of the broadcast  
> spectrum for wireless Internet applications.
>
>
> Dana Spiegel
> Executive Director
> NYCwireless
> dana at NYCwireless.net
> www.NYCwireless.net
> +1 917 402 0422
>
> Read the Community Wireless blog: http://sociable.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
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