Philly Broadband Clash Pits City Against Telcos
526497
Philadelphia officials have laid the groundwork to provide wireless, high-speed Internet access anywhere in the city, but their plan could be scotched under a state bill that could be signed into law on Tuesday.
92962
Company points potential Net phone customers to cable giants for broadband--all part of Ma Bell's aggressive VoIP plans.
329266
(InfoWorld) - Despite the tribulations of launching a regional wireless Internet network, some cities are making progress by sharing their hard-won lessons. Stung by criticism of high cost, flaky service and pandering to recreational Web surfers, cities can justify their investment in free wireless service by using the networks to support public safety radio traffic, attract new businesses and abolish the "digital divide" that can stop low-income workers from landing Internet-age jobs. That's the message from government technology workers gathered at the MuniWireless 2007 conference in Newton, Massachusetts. Ubiquitous wireless coverage could also improve residents' lives by offering automated traffic monitoring, parking enforcement and meter reading, they said. But sometimes even those goals fail to sustain public support when a network hits surprise hurdles, said Bill Oates, chief information officer for Boston. The city had been running its new Wi-Fi network for a month in the blocks surrounding city hall when citizens began to complain that the Internet service provider used a content filter that blocked certain Web sites. "We will keep hitting bumps in the road, we know that. But sometimes it makes you ask if it's WiMax versus Wi-Fi versus 'Why even try?'," Oates said Tuesday in a conference session. Cities can also face a challenge when the local historical society complains that wireless antennas can harm the architectural appearance of city buildings. City workers in Malden, Massachusetts, found a way around that problem by fitting a Wi-Fi antenna inside the storefront sign of a local bar. The business owner was happy to donate the location in exchange for a strong signal, and the new node boosted coverage in a heavily populated part of town, said Anthony Rodrigues, the city's director of information technology. That example illustrates that the politics of launching a wireless network can be a tougher challenge than the technology, Rodrigues said. It is fairly easy to link the networks in neighboring towns to share coverage areas or fire response, but much harder to persuade elected leaders to talk about funding the effort or agreeing who will control the network. The political hurdle applies far beyond the borders of New England, where the conference is taking place, said Esme Vos, the founder of MuniWireless.com , a blog and sponsor of the conference. Until recently, public wireless networks have existed only in major cities with large budgets, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Portland, Oregon, she said. But across the U.S., the number of municipalities with planned or deployed public broadband networks has risen from 122 in July 2005 to 385 in May 2007, according to MuniWireless. The downside of that success has been increased public scrutiny of the investment involved, and demands from some taxpayers that the networks should be financially self-sufficient. That pressure has pushed the industry to consider many new business models, borrowing ideas like the advertising embedded in text messages or commercials that play over cell phones, she said. Others have asked government regulators to force content providers to bundle free wireless access with existing cable television, phone service, wired Internet access, VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and IP television packages. However, Vos is passionate that governments should not insist that municipal Wi-Fi pay for itself, just as they don't require public utilities and paved highways to run at a profit. Governments throughout Europe already support public networks that way, not only in urban centers like Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam and Milan, but throughout rural regions, she said. In the meantime, municipal technology leaders in the U.S. should continue to hone their skills at expanding coverage and supporting reliable service. "There have been a lot of negative stories in the press recently, saying 'these things don't work'," Vos said. "But people are learning from their mistakes. If you have to use 40 nodes instead of 20 nodes to cover the area, we can learn from that."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
175484
Cities that try to set up their own broadband networks are facing staunch opposition from cable and phone companies, who see publicly funded fiber-optic networks as a threat to their own bottom line. By John Gartner.
687304
ISPs (but not big telcos) to offer bandwidth filtering
185619
The European Commission fines Spain's Telefonica for stifling competition in the broadband market.
551763
A proposed Pennsylvania law on its way to the governor's desk could pose a hurdle for Philadelphia's ambitious plan to provide broadband Wi-Fi service throughout the city by mid-2006.
86529
Philadelphia may spread the joy of wireless Internet access to its citizens.
670456
Broadband over powerline (BPL) got a boost from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week, but even as the technology begins deployments, it&#39;s unclear how much of a fight it will put up against DSL and cable.
35867
By Jim Wyss, The Miami Herald  Mar. 4--One of the most well-funded battles of the last legislative session is heating up again as the cable industry and telephone companies face off over the right to provide cable TV service.
32091
Cable or Bell. The Supreme Court takes a crack at broadband regulation.
81881
It&#39;s already well known for its cheesesteak sandwiches, the Liberty Bell - and for sports fans who once booed Santa Claus. Now, the city of Philadelphia is trying to forge a new reputation - by way of the Internet.
750551
VENICE -- The idea sounds good on paper: Build a mesh network of wireless Wi-Fi base stations and let users roam around an entire city instead of providing limited connectivity in a handful of hot spots. But will it work? The City of Philadelphia hopes so.
673257
It is unfair that DSL products deemed telecom services have been regulated much more tightly than the primary competition -- cable modems -- telcos have complained.
235537
Despite a recent court victory for the area&#39;s largest telecommunications company, the battle for your home phone service isn&#39;t about to end.
721852
(InfoWorld) - A high-tech mecca in Silicon Valley wants to get even more connected by rolling out a superfast fiber network for all its residents. The city of Palo Alto, California, home to many major IT vendors and venture capital firms, last week put out an RFP (request for proposals) seeking a private partner to build a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. The required speed: 100M bps (bits per second) both downstream and upstream. And as debate swirls in nearby San Francisco over how much the city should be involved in a proposed citywide Wi-Fi network, Palo Alto's position is clear: It wants to eventually own the whole fiber network. The drive by some U.S. cities to build their own broadband networks has been attacked by incumbent carriers and other critics who claim governments have an unfair competitive advantage. Many municipalities have taken a different tack by forming partnerships with private network providers. This approach is now under fire in San Francisco, where the city's budget analyst is studying the business case for a government-owned wireless system. City ownership is critical for network neutrality, according to Peter Allen, a founder of the advocacy group Palo Alto Fiber Network. The city understands that having a service provider own a municipal network doesn't work, he said. "If UPS owned Highway 1, FedEx would not be able to make competitive deliveries," Allen said. Existing service providers that might object to the city's plan, such as local incumbent AT&T Inc., can compete for the project along with other private applicants, he said. Palo Alto, a mostly affluent and liberal city of 60,000, already owns several of its own utilities. Its electric utility owns a fiber-optic ring around the city that links to the Palo Alto Internet Exchange, a "peering point" where most major Internet service providers meet on the Internet. In 2000, the city launched an FTTH trial that reached 66 homes and drew rave reviews from users. The city explored having the electric utility build a fiber network itself but found that its plan to pay for it with revenue bonds wasn't allowed, according to the RFP. The council eventually settled on seeking a private partner, then transferring ownership to the city after a few years. How that transfer would work has yet to be determined. At a minimum, the network would provide data, video and VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service, according to the RFP. It would be neutral and open to multiple service providers who would buy wholesale access. The city wants services to be affordable and available citywide, though some remote parts of the city might not get the full 100M bps bandwidth, according to the RFP. A service provider would have to come up with just over US$36 million to build the whole network and operate it until it achieved positive cash flow, according to Neil Shaw, a principal at Uptown Services LLC, a Boulder, Colorado, consulting firm the city hired to study the concept in 2002-2003. That estimate included an upgrade after 10 years to provide even greater speed. Uptown estimated revenue from the network would pay off that capital investment within 14 years. The cost of building fiber networks has gone down since 2003, Shaw added. Responses to the RFP have to be in by Nov. 28, and the city plans to identify the finalists on Dec. 18, according to the RFP. The timing of its final choice will depend on what responses come in and how long it takes to review them, said Kathy Bradley, the city's contract administrator.
423166
The long-promised battle between U.S.  cable and telephone companies has so far been more of an uneasy  peace. Thanks to their duopoly over broadband Internet access,  it may stay that way.