North America in the News

Florida Bill Strikes a Compromise
Lawmakers passed a wide-ranging telecommunications bill last week that would place restrictions on cities that seek to offer high-speed Internet access and other services to residents and businesses. A detailed approval process will require cities to show the new systems would be profitable within four years. If cities do not make money, they would have three choices: cease operations, enter partnerships with private businesses or formally vote to continue providing services. Barry Moline, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, which lobbied for cities, said he would have been happiest if the bill had died. But he said he thinks the final compromise "sets fair rules." The bill would also free new technologies, such as broadband and wireless services, from state regulation.

Wireless in Seattle with 802.16
This June, Speakeasy will begin offering WiMAX-class services throughout Seattle via the city’s famous Space Needle. Commercial service will range from $500/month (3 Mbps) to $700/month (6 Mbps) through an annual contract. Seattle is the first among several major cities to roll out Speakeasy’s fixed wireless-broadband service for businesses, using Alvarion pre-WiMax base stations and end-user hardware as well as Intel's recently announced 802.16-2004 system-on-a-chip (SoC). Seattle is a tough city to deploy wireless services because of constant rain and difficult terrain, thus Speakeasy’s believe that "if it can work here, it can work anywhere.”

Philadelphia Touts Business Plan
The City of Philadelphia has officially released the business plan and RFP for Wireless Philadelphia, the citywide wireless broadband network. The view the documents, go directly to . In an interview with MuniWireless.com, Philadelphia CIO Dianah Neff explains that the city will create a non-profit organization whose task is to build the network by contracting out to private parties. The non-profit will get its funding through foundation grants and bank loans; it plans to earn revenue by selling access to private ISPs at wholesale prices.

Tropos CEO Argues for Muni Wi-Fi
Tropos Networks CEO Ron Sege says arguments against municipal Wi-Fi networks ignore a growing number of successful municipal deployments and rely on incorrect assertions. “These flawed arguments put the public at risk of making incorrect policy decisions and having to live with the consequences. Policies that limit the rapid deployment of broadband wireless networks mean limiting the real benefits of these networks to public safety, economic growth and the education and enrichment of our citizens.”

Community Wi-Fi for San Antonio
For the past two weeks, Cisneros and Terry Weakly of San Antonio have been working on a community wireless access. From arts organization Urban 15's rooftop on the West Side, an antenna that looks like a mini-beer keg beams high-speed wireless Internet access to the neighborhood. "This is going to open up San Antonio's under-served communities to the rest of the world," said George Cisneros, head of the nonprofit Urban 15.

Telecom CEOs in Muni Hearings
In a US Senate hearing this week on the recent bout of telecom merger-mania, both Verizon and SBC's CEO's deny they're stopping communities from wiring themselves with broadband."We can’t stop anybody from putting any technology out there," said SBC chief Ed Whitacre. Ivan Seidenberg, CEO, Verizon Communications, said that “generally, we find it unfair that municipalities that regulate us, set our taxes, set our franchise fees, participate in running our company in some fashion also now want to compete with us, under a different set of rules. So every time we see that happening, we point it out.”

Verizon Broadband Wireless in 29 Markets
Using a laptop wireless PC card, Verizon customers can connect to the Internet, corporate intranet, and email and attachments at high speeds in 29 major American markets for $79.99 per month. Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess is “available anywhere, anytime” within the coverage area. The subscription includes unlimited access to Verizon Wireless NationalAccess enabling connectivity in thousands of cities and towns across the United States.

Philly Falls Back, Springs Ahead
In a recent interview, City of Philadelphia CIO Dianah Neff defends her city’s $10-million wireless Internet initiative. No sooner had the city named members to the project’s executive committee last August than state legislators pushed through the Pennsylvania Telecommunications Act, which forbids any “political subdivision” from providing any telecommunications service to the public for a fee. At the time, Philadelphia’s plan was for free Wi-Fi service, but the city also had said it might charge a small fee as it rolled out the network citywide. More than 3,000 people and businesses called or sent e-mail to Gov. Edward G. Rendell asking that the initiative go forward, and the city negotiated a waiver. “It was based on a grass-roots effort,” Neff said. Dozens of US cities now offer some form of subsidized Wi-Fi, or plan to, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Lexington, Ky., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Chicago Ponders Wi-Fi Destiny
Wary of its own state legislature, the City of Chicago will review a city ordinance this week allowing it to self-install its own municipal Wi-Fi network or permit an outside vendor to do the same and share network revenues with the city. A state telecommunications bill introduced by state senator James F. Clayborne, Jr. would prohibit a Chicago’s local initiative.

Copps Touts Municipal Wi-Fi
In an interview, Commissioner Michael Copps, one of two Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission, said he lamented America’s 13thplace ranking in broadband penetration and encouraged local governments to take the matter into their own hands.

Wi-Fi Battle Warms in Texas
The nonprofit group Technology for All wants to empower low-income communities in Houston, Texas, with free high-speed wireless Internet access to residential areas in the Melcher Public Library neighborhood. A massive telecommunications bill in the state capitol would, in part, bans Texas cities from participating in wireless information networks.

Debating the Digital Divide
On its most recent episode, NOW, a US public television TV magazine, explores the issues surrounding local governments building their own broadband-wireless networks to provide affordable high-speed Internet access to underserved neighborhoods. High-speed Internet access is seen as essential to success in the United States, but the telecom giants are worried about maintaining their dominance over local markets and municipalities.

Wi-Fi Clouds and Zones
Director Scott Shamp and team at the New Media Institute, University of Georgia, have analytically described how businesses, governments, communities, and other organizations are using wireless technology to create large Wi-Fi and wireless Internet clouds.

Say No to "Backwater Broadband"
In an op-ed for Wired Magazine, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig chastises 14 state governments around the United States for boxing out municipalities in their efforts to bring broadband infrastructure to their own. "Backwater broadband has been our fate long enough. Let the markets, both private and public, compete to provide the service that telecom and cable has not."

Philadelphia, Eyes Are Upon You
Mayor John F. Street of Philadelphia plans to light up the 135-square-mile metropolis with broadband wireless infrastructure, offering every neighborhood high-speed Internet access at below-market prices in what would be the largest experiment in municipal Internet service in the country. Success in Philadelphia could constitute the tipping point for a nationwide movement to make broadband available and affordable in every municipality.

Wireless Market to Hit $212.5 Billion by 2008
Total U.S. spending on wireless communications will grow by 9.3 percent in 2005 to reach $158.6 billion, according the Telecommunications Industry Association. The wireless market will reach $212.5 billion by 2008, with a 10 percent compound annual growth rate from 2005 to 2008. The U.S. wireless market comprises of handsets, transport services, capital expenditures and infrastructure equipment including Wi-Fi(R) equipment plus the emerging market for broadband access (e.g., WiMAX(TM)) equipment and professional services in support of the wireless infrastructure.

Hands Off Our Wi-Fi Network!
Philadelphia CIO Dianah Neff argues the case for city-run broadband wireless communications infrastructure: "Tell me who among incumbent local exchange carriers…provides high-speed, broadband, ubiquitous services at dial-up rates for the underserved populations?... Who is working to get equipment and training into the homes of low-income and disadvantaged portions of our community?"

Point: Muni Wireless Is a Bad Idea
MobilePipeline’s Dave Molta: "First, these initiatives are viewed as inappropriate expenditures of public funds that are likely to result in higher than expected ongoing operational costs. Second, the report asserts that such efforts are both anti-competitive and will have a chilling effect on private efforts to expand broadband services…."

Counterpoint: Muni Networks Serve Real Needs
MobilePipeline’s David Haskin: "A modest proposal…would be to require governments that want to undertake municipal networks to develop a ‘business and social impact statement’ to prove that…the proposed network is the only way to solve specific problems. That would prevent these networks from being installed just because a city wants to shine up its image, which, admittedly, has been the case in some municipalities. Such a statement would make sure that these networks actually solve a real-world problem that the private sector can't or won't solve."

Great Plains Against Muni?
Following Indiana, this month Nebraska became the newest state to introduce legislation curtailing the ability of municipalities to deploy broadband networks. Civitium, the Digital-Cities consulting firm, maintains a list of statutes in 15 states where some form of restriction exists on the ability of municipal governments to provide telecommunications and/or information services. The list is compiled from various government and technology Web sites.

More background and analysis on Indiana and Nebraska cases:

Intel Supports City-Run Muni Broadband
At his speech at the Wireless Communications Association in San Jose, Calif., earlier this month, Intel’s Executive Vice President Sean Maloney was expected to encourage commercial service providers and public agencies such as city governments and municipalities to work closely together in laying out citywide broadband networks.
Incumbent service operators argue that municipalities have an unfair advantage because they are backed by public funds.

Local-Government Wi-Fi a Charged Opportunity
Although some 14 states have passed legislation restricting cities from offering broadband-wireless services directly to citizens, New York City will award multiple pilot projects to systems integrators like IBM and Motorola that would serve as precursors to a full-scale rollout of a citywide mobile wireless network.

A Hotzone the Size of Texas?
This January, Atlanta-based Sanswire Networks is expected to launch its first geostationary "stratellite" 13 miles above the earth. The five-meter-long airship will eventually relay radio and broadband signals with a potential coverage area the size of Texas. By beaming broadband connections to fixed antennas, stratellites could begin to offer high-speed Internet access across a vast range rural and high-density terrains.

Case Study: A Silver Bullet for Poverty
In spring of 2002, Philadelphia’s People's Emergency Center began using its T-1 line to deliver Wi-Fi connectivity to low-income users for $5 per month, providing training courses and low-cost hardware to residents. The Center’s initiative is a model for communities seeking to adopt broadband-wireless technology to foster economic and social development.
• Source: (Civitium, MuniWireless, Dec 2004, Matt Stone)

Privatizing an Emerging Public Service
The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council has produced a fill-in-the-blank legislative template expressly to limit "the authority of municipalities to own and operate telecommunications and advanced service and cable television facilities." Download the so-called Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act:

Report: Entering the Broadband Age
A September report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration points to a widening gap between the digital haves and have-nots. Only 25 percent of rural households have a broadband connection, compared with 40 percent for urban areas, and only one-in-seven blacks and fewer than one-in-eight Hispanics lives in a household with high-speed Internet service.

FCC Exempts VoIP from State Regulation
The FCC declared exclusive regulatory authority over certain IP-enabled telecommunications services, issuing a Memorandum Opinion and Order [FCC 04-267] exempting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services from state regulation.

Telcos Trump City Provision of Wi-Fi
Philadelphia won a reprieve in its push to roll out wireless Internet access to city residents. Because to a House bill newly signed by Pennsylvania's, all other municipalities around the state will not retain such freedom.

Philadelphia Wi-Fi Roadblock: An Alternate Interpretation
If Pennsylvania’s House Bill 30 passes and is signed by the governor, municipalities around the state will be prohibited from offering Wi-Fi services for a fee, which could endanger Philadelphia’s new citywide wireless plan. MuniWireless’s Esme Vos says the bill "places limits on what local government can do to stimulate competition especially where there is a duopoly (one cable provider and one DSL provider, each of which is charging too much money for access). Why should there be a restriction on municipal activity in the telecommunications sphere? Whose private interests is the bill designed to protect other than the local exchange telecommunications company?"

London's Largest Wi-Fi Hotspot
Registering 1,200 sessions per week, the British Library is central London's most active and largest public Wi-Fi hotspot. The mainly indoor Wi-Fi zone allows the 3,000 visitors the library receives each day to connect to the Internet and access e-mail. Almost 9 out of 10 visitors arrive with a laptop, but many had been leaving to go to a nearby Internet café to access the Web.

Wireless-Internet Philadelphia Plan in Jeopardy
The much-hyped plan to create a giant wireless cloud over Philadelphia is in jeopardy. If passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor, House bill 30 would make it illegal for municipalities to compete with private broadband providers. Supporters of the Philadelphia effort say the bill only helps the private sector serve the rich.

City Wi-Fi Networks Grow
Large-scale wireless data networks are emerging as the latest high-tech economic development tool across the United States, appearing in major metro area downtowns and smaller suburban central business districts. The phenomenon is much larger than the appearance of last year of "hot zones" for Wi-Fi networks that provided connectivity in coffee shops, hotels or airports.

Wireless as Utility
In the near future, ubiquitous high-speed wireless networks will let users pay as they go for the bandwidth they want. The networks will be used as a utility, and customers will pay as they go for the bandwidth they want.

BT to Launch Wi-Fi Phone Service
Using voice-over IP, British Telecom will launch Wi-Fi phone service next year enabling customers to make cheap international phone calls from hundreds of hotspots around the world.

FCC Modifies Broadband Over Power Line Rules
The FCC has changed part of its rules promoting broadband over power line (BPL) technology. BPL enables high-speed data connections over the power grid. Early tests indicate a high potential for harmful interference.
• Source: (Oct 2004, Paul M. Baker, Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology)

Congressmen Urge FCC to Control VoIP
Sixty-two members of Congress have signed a letter urging FCC Chairman Michael Powell to declare exclusive federal regulatory authority over voice-over IP before states have the opportunity to regulate it. patchwork of regulation that could inhibit growth in VoIP services.