http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/nyregion/07wifi.html
[dead tree version: B2]
July 7, 2006
New York to Examine Creating Citywide Broadband Network
By SEWELL CHAN
Even as a contractor moves ahead with plans to install wireless
networks in 10 parks, New York City intends to study whether to
establish a citywide broadband network similar to those planned by
cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco.
The study, commissioned by the city's Economic Development
Corporation, will examine "whether there is a need for a citywide
broadband network as a municipal initiative" and what legal,
technical, logistical and economic challenges such a project would
involve, according to a request for proposals that the city released
on June 14.
The request for proposals was mentioned in a brief item in Crain's
New York Business on June 26, but has otherwise attracted little
attention until yesterday when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg mentioned
it.
The mayor was addressing a project by the Department of Parks and
Recreation to bring wireless Internet access to 18 locations in 10
major city parks, including Central and Riverside Parks in Manhattan,
Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks in
the Bronx.
Asked why no Staten Island parks were included, Mr. Bloomberg said:
"The parks on Staten Island tend to be very small, and that's much
harder to provide Wi-Fi to. So the first thing we're going to do is
do the big parks, and then we'll take a look at the others. And we
have actually started to do a study as to what it would take to do
long, thin parks or very small parks, finding an economic way to do
that."
Consultants' proposals for conducting the broadband feasibility study
are due on July 21. The first goal would be to assess "the existing
state of broadband services" and decide whether a citywide network -
or a more limited network - is needed. If the answer is yes, the
Economic Development Corporation could have the consultant stay on to
develop an economic and technological approach for the project.
The request for proposals noted that "broadband availability is
already high" in many neighborhoods, but also asked whether wireless
access could be made widely available "at competitive prices" and
whether a network could strengthen the local economy.
In August 2004, a plan announced by Mayor John F. Street of
Philadelphia to blanket the city's 135 square miles with broadband
signals attracted national attention. A nonprofit organization
created to oversee the project, Wireless Philadelphia, signed a
contract in March with EarthLink, an Internet service provider based
in Atlanta, to install transmittal devices on about 4,000
streetlights and create 22 free "hot spots" around the city.
Other cities have followed suit. In April 2005, the city of Tempe,
Ariz., hired the MobilePro Corporation of Bethesda, Md., to build a
wireless network covering the city's 40 square miles. Last April, San
Francisco selected EarthLink and Google to provide free or low-cost
wireless Internet access across the city's 47 square miles. Last
week, EarthLink opened a Wi-Fi network covering the central area of
Anaheim, Calif. All of the city's 50 square miles are to be covered
by the end of the year.
Dana Spiegel, executive director of NYC Wireless, a local nonprofit
group that has been hired by several business improvement districts
and companies to set up wireless networks in public spaces, cautioned
that the other cities might not be the right model for New York City
to follow. "We're a much bigger city and have a much more complicated
set of connectivity problems," he said. "It's unclear that municipal
broadband at a citywide level is the solution for New York City."
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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