On 11 Feb, 2005, at 13:09, John Ellingsworth wrote:
http://news.com.com/Hands+off+our+Wi-Fi+network/2010-1071_3
-5571655.html?tag=nefd.ac
There is a good discussion of it here:
http://slashdot.org/articles/05/02/11/1458211.shtml?tid=193tid=1
You will note that what is missing from this dialog is Philadelphia's
actual plan.
There was a conference at MIT about a month ago and Dianah Neff, Chief
Information Officer, City of Philadelphia, presented some sketchy
details saying that she couldn't say more until the Mayor makes his
presentation on the 7th.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/10675168.htm
Neff said a public-private partnership of a kind ``we haven't seen
before'' will run the service, which is expected to break even within
four years. She declined to be more specific, saying Mayor John Street
would announce details of a financial plan for the service on Feb. 7.
However, nothing has been forthcoming from either the Mayor, the
Wireless website
( www.phila.gov/wireless ) or Ed Schwartz's Philly Blocks group.
The city's website was updated just recently to include a February 9th
article in Broadband Access World
http://www.etopiamedia.net/emtnn/pages/bwaw/bwaw25-5551212.html
[This page contains a downloadable 30 minute audio interview with Neff.]
in which Ms Neff indicates that the Super Bowl disrupted the
announcement on the 7th, but that they hoped the announcement would be
made in February.
From the audio interview, it appears that the committee are proposing a
wi-max, hybrid mesh for the technology. It appears that the RFP will
appear about 30 days after the Mayor's announcement, be open for 45-60
days, hoping to begin construction by June.
As for the Hands off our WiFi article on Cnet ... that reads like
something which was written several months ago before both the
Pennsylvania Legislature passed legislation on the topic, AND before
Philadelphia and Verizon signed a written agreement making the entire
issue moot.
It appears to serve the purpose of deflecting scrutiny of the City's
proposal by casting the City as the good guy and Verizon and Comcast
as the bad guys.
The City proposal goes far beyond simply building a network. They
intend to provide computers, one assumes, for free, to poor
neighborhoods where people cannot afford them -- A $300 desktop and
$600 laptop is apparently being negotiated with some vendor, under
some undefined circumstances.
However, on the subject of the use of Government subsidies, Neff does a
fancy tap-dance ...
After declaring earlier in her presentation that Wireless access would
only cost $20 per house passed because city owned assets were being
used for infrastructure (compared with $700-1000 for DSL or Cable), she
carefully states that no tax-exempt bonds, and no capital or general
operating dollars from the government, but doesn't mention the use of
the city owned assets which she outlined earlier.
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
# Beige G3 [Rev A motherboard - 300 MHz 768 Meg] OS X 10.2.8
# Flat-panel iMac (2.1) [800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg] OS X 10.3.7
# PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg] Tru64 5.1a
# XP1000 [Alpha 21264-3 (EV6) - 256 meg] FreeBSD 5.3
# XP1000 [Alpha 21264-A (EV 6.7) - 384 meg] FreeBSD 5.3
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the
list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see
http://www.purple.com/list.html.
