Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

chtechcomm - [Chtechcomm] City-driven network war in the city of brotherly love

chtechcomm AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Terri Buckner <tbuckner AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: Chapel Hill Information Technology Advisory Committee <chtechcomm AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Chtechcomm] City-driven network war in the city of brotherly love
  • Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 09:24:27 -0400

From National Journal, August 22, 2005
By Drew Clark

(Monday, August 22) It is a modern-day “Philadelphia Story”: A major city bemoans limitations on its high-speed Internet connections, technology vendors pine for the prospect of new sales, and dominant Bell telecommunications and cable companies cry foul in the statehouse.

The heightened national controversy over municipal networks can be traced to Philadelphia’s experiment with wireless broadband, announced in 2004. But there is dissension in the City of Brotherly Love. Cities from San Francisco to Corpus Christi in Texas are rushing to follow Philadelphia’s lead, while statehouses are rushing to follow Pennsylvania’s.

Last December, at the urging of Verizon Communications and Philadelphia-based Comcast, the commonwealth barred cities and towns from offering Internet access to consumers for a fee. But after protests from Philadelphia Mayor John Street, and technology and public-interest groups, Democratic Gov. Edward Rendell signed a version of the bill that exempted Philadelphia from the legislation.

Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit corporation to provide Wi-Fi wireless access to the city, was not fully formed until March 31.

Philadelphia Chief Information Officer Dianah Neff repeatedly has said the project will be “cost-neutral.” The city expects to float bonds worth $18 million to hire technology companies to build and run the network, but Neff said it will cover those costs through a monthly per-customer fee.

Neff said Wireless Philadelphia is a “cooperative wholesale model.” That means the city will not sell service directly to the public but “will contract with between four and seven Internet service providers that will actually do the end-user service deliver.”

The ISPs will pay a “wholesale fee” of about $9 a month, she said, and they will sell broadband at 1 megabit per second for about $20 a month. That is slower than Verizon’s digital subscriber lines or Comcast’s cable modems. ISPs participating in Wireless Philadelphia also must agree “to meet the social goals” of bridging the city’s digital divide by subsidizing poorer households to purchase broadband for about $10 a month.

“I don’t think we will see high-end customers of Verizon or Comcast” switching to Wireless Philadelphia, Neff said in an interview, although “they may add it as an adjunct for mobility.”

Last week, Philadelphia announced contract negotiations with EarthLink and Hewlett-Packard, the two finalists to become the lead contractor. For EarthLink, the largest ISP unaffiliated with a cable or Bell company, the project has become a high-stakes bid because of the recent decisions by the Supreme Court and FCC limiting competition on cable and Bell networks.

Other tech companies are equally supportive. Intel has been a prominent advocate of municipal broadband networks and last week announced a “Digital Communities” initiative highlighting efforts in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Corpus Christi and Taipei, Taiwan.

“For the last two years in the municipal wireless space, much of the emphasis was on free networks,” said Paul Butcher, Intel’s marketing manager for state and local governments. “In the past six to nine months, the dialogue has changed to [focus on] the real economic benefits [for cities] and as a way of delivering solutions against the digital divide.”
********************
This article is from National Journal (http://nationaljournal.com/). If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their website and register an account to view all their articles on the web. Support quality journalism.
***********************

Links to:
Wireless Philadelphia (customer), http://www.wirelessphiladelphia.net/
Wireless Philadelphia (business plan, mission statement, etc.): http://www.phila.gov/wireless/




  • [Chtechcomm] City-driven network war in the city of brotherly love, Terri Buckner, 08/27/2005

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page