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Seattle Wi-Fi Pilot
Location: USA
Abstract:
For more than a year, the City of Seattle has been operating a Wi-Fi pilot project in its university district and in the south end of town (Columbia City), as well as in four downtown parks and city hall. The network has 17 access points, deployed primarily on light poles, and includes interior premise equipment at four different sites The goals of the pilot are economic development (to assist small businesses and increase purchases), to improve usage of the city’s Web resources, and to encourage mixed use of the parks to increase safety. The question of return on investment to the community, however, is an evolving one. This summer the city conducted its first evaluation of the technology and surveyed network users Since January 2006, the network has registered over 10,000 unique users (65,000 uses overall) with an average daily use of 130 individual users, including a combination of visitors and local residents. The survey revealed that half were customers, and just over a quarter were home users in the surrounding area. Some 10% were “other”—students, visiting scholars and people traveling on business. “We’ve seen a high percentage of first-timer users, about 1,200 per month,” said David Keyes, Seattle’s Chief Technology Manager Businesses When the city asked local businesses whether the network had helped them, just over half said it hadn’t made a difference, a quarter didn’t know, and a quarter said it had. In one district, however, almost 40% reported the network had made a difference. “To some extent, the jury is still out,” Keyes said For most businesses, the network is not replacing other Internet access right now. About one sixth of businesses use the network to conduct business, and it’s being used as a marketing tool. For example, realtors say their condos are “near the Wi-Fi zone.” For some businesses, Wi-Fi is not appropriate. “They don’t want WiFi or folks sitting there with laptops,” Keyes said. “Others are concerned with table turnover, and ask, Could they turn it off sometimes, too?” Customers From the customer perspective, the network was a contributing factor to using the business district and specific businesses, with three quarters saying Wi-Fi had encouraged them that day to go into specific businesses. “People are coming in, staying longer, spending more money in some cases, combining visits, telework, job searching—a whole variety of uses,” Keyes said. “There’s a climate that’s been developed around casual business meetings. I can hold my business meeting and make it a destination for conducting work.” Over half said it had saved them driving, which is a significant impact. About 10% said it would save driving in the future Content When given a choice, some 65% of users said they wanted local event information, and a little less wanted local business information, products and services. Interest in local government information and area maps was not as high. Only 6% said they didn’t want any content—just to surf the Web and access e-mail. The network did increase usage of Seattle.gov, especially pages on jobs and city services In conclusion, some 90% of businesses approved of continuing Seattle Wi-Fi. Not surprisingly, many users said to continue it as well A technical expectation has been indoor coverage—getting deeper into the cafes and bookstores. “But interestingly, only half expected indoor coverage,” Keyes said. Interference issues have arisen, and a number of users commented on coverage and reliability of the network in an uncontrolled open space. “There’s a big issue around user knowledge and expectation,” Keyes said. “People with a laptop can see Seattle Wi-Fi but can’t connect to it.”
Website: http://www.seattle.gov/html/citizen/wifi.htm
Practitioner Name: David Keyes
Practitioner Tel: n/a
Practitioner E-mail: communitytechnology@seattle.gov
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Shanghai Security Co.
Location: China
Abstract:
In a project run under the auspices of the Shanghai municipal government, Infinet Wireless Ltd. and Divv Technology company, a China distributor, have built an urban wireless network deployment for the Shanghai Security company. The network connects over 50 sites for transmission of uncompressed video traffic. It will span an area of 16 square kilometers and is equipped with video surveillance equipment. Sites will include schools, urban infrastructure premises, city utilities, entertainment places, and government offices. Up to 7-9 video cameras will be connected via wireless multiplex to InfiNet CPE. Infinet Wireless deployed its series 5000 base stations and subscriber CPE to create the wireless infrastructure. Its base stations will be connected via a wireless link to Shanghai Security's private corporate network.
Website: http://www.infinetwireless.com/news/news_archive/nnewsitem12/view?searchterm=Shanghai
Practitioner Name: Robert H. Stubblebine
Practitioner Tel: n/a
Practitioner E-mail: robert@infinetwireless.com
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Vendor Name 1: INFI
Vendor Title 1: Infinet Wireless
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Silicon Valley Wireless
Location: USA
Abstract:
In September 2006, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, and the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT) announced, through its RFP process, that it had selected Silicon Valley Metro Connect (a collaboration of IBM, Cisco, Azulstar, and SeaKay) to build, own, and operate a broadband-wireless network for San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties as well as Fremont and Newark in Alameda County and Santa Cruz — a nearly 1,500-square-mile of coverage area. Working at the county level, and grouping together 42 local-government entities, the network will serve the 2.4 million residents of Silicon Valley through a wholesale model.
Website: http://www.jointventure.org/programs-initiatives/wirelesssiliconvalley/wireless.html
Practitioner Name: Brian Moura
Practitioner Tel: 650-802-4210
Practitioner E-mail: bmoura@cityofsancarlos.org
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Skellefteä, Sweden
Location: Sweden
Abstract:
MobileCity is a consortium of commercial and academic organizations, established to research, test and develop wireless technologies in an effort to bring modern telecommunications to the many remote areas of Scandinavia. MobileCity chose the nearby town of Skellefteä, in Northern Sweden, as both a test-bed and showcase for new wireless technologies. Successfully deploying Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the city, MobileCity still experienced only limited reach of the network. Their research soon proved that WiMAX would be the most cost-effective technology for extending top-quality broadband throughout the region. It would reach a distance of 20 kilometers, compared to the Wi-Fi range of only a few hundred meters. MobileCity teamed up with industry leaders Intel, Alvarion and UpGrade Communications AB to build a WiMAX network using Alvarion’s BreezeMAX™ solution. The town of Skellefteä became the first municipality to install wireless broadband throughout its area and provide high-speed access to its entire community, as well as villages and settlements outside of town. This project has become a model for providing Internet access and last-mile connectivity to both large and small communities throughout the world.
Website: www.mobilecity.nu
Practitioner Name: Goran Eriksson
Practitioner Tel: +46 910 778822
Practitioner E-mail: info@mobilecity.se
Vendor Name 1: ALVR
Vendor Title 1: Alvarion-HQ
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South Korea Ubicity
Location: South Korea
Abstract:
U-City, or Ubiquitous ICT City, is Koea’s 21st-century ICT-mediated city in which advanced ICT infrastructure and ubiquitous information services are integrated into the city space, providing high convenience and quality for everyday city life, highly secured and well managed city environments, and creation of new business. The u-City project will become the center of the government and private sectors’ effort to sustain growth in the country’s economy: It is creating ICT-converged construction industries and securing the growth phase of the ICT industry by maximizing the synergy between the world’s top-level ICT infrastructure and the most active city construction industry in Korea. Local governments have been laying out several u-City’s such as Seoul’s Digital Media City and Incheon’s New Songdo City projects. Industry insiders believe that successful launch of the u-City could only be possible by linking the regional projects for balanced development, avoiding overlapping investment while solving the economical, technical, and legislative barriers through interaction between the government and private sectors. The u-City Forum was established to concentrate the full effort of allied industry, government and civil experts for the development of u-City application services, related technology, and research for related regulations. The major members of the forum are central and local government including MIC, MCT, Incheon,Busan,Kyonggi,city developers such as the Korea Land Corp. and Korea Housing Corp.,and high-tech heavyweights such as KT, SKT, Samsung and LG.
Website: http://www.ubicity.org
Practitioner Name: Yong Jun Park
Practitioner Tel: n/a
Practitioner E-mail: yjpark@ubicity.org
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Spokane, WA
Location: USA
Abstract:
The City of Spokane, WA, (pop. 200,000) has deployed 5 Vivato* Wi-Fi base stations and 12 outdoor bridge/routers throughout the downtown area to provide wireless connectivity to a 100-block core, with additional deployment phases planned. The wireless network includes two domains serving private and public user groups. The private domain is for exclusive use of the city to facilitate operational and municipal communication applications to improve city services, allowing workers wireless access to the city’s computing resources and database information, including building floor plans, fire inspection reports, mug shots and equipment repair manuals. This domain serves the police department, fire department, computer-aided dispatch services, downtown parking violations department, sewer treatment plant, etc. The second domain is public access within the wireless coverage area, primarily providing Internet surfing and, gradually, access to e-Government services. From a commercial perspective, the city is gathering data to determine site traffic and is designing an advertising campaign to drive retail traffic into the city’s core.
Website: http://www.spokanecity.org
Practitioner Name: Robin Toth
Practitioner Tel: 509-742-9388
Practitioner E-mail: rtoth@spokaneedc.org
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Vendor Name 1: VIV
Vendor Title 1: Vivato
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St. Cloud, FL
Location: USA
Abstract:
In March 2006, the City of St. Cloud launched the first totally free citywide broadband-wireless network in the U.S., providing free access across 15 square miles to all citizens. The network is paid for with city economic development funds.
Website:
Practitioner Name: Glenn Sangiovanni
Practitioner Tel: 407-957-8401
Practitioner E-mail: gsangiovanni@ouc.com
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Vendor Name 1: MRI
Vendor Title 1: MRI
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St. Louis, MO
Location: USA
Abstract:
In early 2007, the City of St. Louis established a partnership with AT&T to provide broadband wireless access across 80 percent of the city with a year and the whole city by 2010. Users will get 20 free hours each month.
Website:
Practitioner Name: Michael Wise
Practitioner Tel: n/a
Practitioner E-mail: wisem@st.louiscity.com
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Stockholm, Sweden (Congestion Charging)
Location: Sweden
Abstract:
The aim of Stockholm's successful congestion charging project was to reduce traffic by 10–15%, increase average speed on streets and roads, reduce emissions, and improve the city’s environment. While politically controversial, the system is regarded as a technical success and achieved significant impacts in traffic reduction in Stockholm's city center. The new Swedish government has decided to reintroduce congestion charging some time during the first half year of 2007. Stockholm’s system differs a bit from London’s. In London, camera recognize cars throughout the city, but in Stockholm, it is only when the car enters or exts the center of Stockholm (at 1 of 18 control points), where they are charged between 1–2 euros. With a maximum charge of 6 euro per day per vehicle, it’s much cheaper in Stockholm than in London. And there are many vehicles that are exempted, such as taxis and clean cars. Essing Road, in particular, was exempted for political reasons; it is Sweden’s largest bypass. Everyone thought this road would be overcrowded because it’s the only way now to go north and south without being charged. There are two systems that recognize the cars that pass the zone — a camera that zooms into the registration number and reads it through OCR technology, and a tag or transponder, or an on-board unit (OBR), which communicates with the station. It is voluntary for Stockholm people to get this tag, but there’s a benefit, which is that you can use direct debit from your bank so that you don’t have to go onto the Internet and pay. When crossing one of these toll stations, the system looks into the national registration system at who the owner is, and then the car owner has to pay. And there are several ways to pay — Internet, direct debit, or at a 7-11s store. If you go onto the Internet, you can see all the tax decisions you have that you have paid or not paid. It’s a large system. About 500,000 tax decisions are made every 24 hours, and millions of pictures of registration plates are stored. There are lots of transactions, so it’s a quite complicated system. To ensure the system is robust, every toll station has several ways to communicate with the central station. For example, there are three different cables. If one is broken, two remain. If all three are broken, you can still get the information from the toll station. This system has been up and going 99.96% of the time.
Website: http://www.stockholmsforsoket.se/templates/page.aspx?id=183
Practitioner Name: Oscar Alarik
Practitioner Tel: 070-611 32 29
Practitioner E-mail: oscar@alarik.se
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Vendor Name 1: IBM
Vendor Title 1: IBM
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Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Location: United Kingdom
Abstract:
The Stoke-on-Trent City Education Department required broadband services to each school in a 96 square kilometer region. Already providing broadband to larger schools with 100 Mbps fiber connections, the new challenge was how to connect the smaller schools. After studying a leased-line solution it was determined to be unsuitable due to limited bandwidth, expensive initial costs, ongoing service costs and inflexibility of the network. Several schools were scheduled to relocate and it would require additional setup charges. The Stoke-on-Trent City Education Department turned to Macs Communications Limited (Macscoms). As a leading wireless voice and data specialist, Macscoms had built a number of broadband wireless access networks across the UK. They recommended a wireless network based on Alvarion’s BreezeNET® DS.11, operating at the 2.4 GHz spectrum, to connect schools that had direct line-of-sight to schools already serviced by fiber. Schools without line-of-sight were provided broadband wireless access using BreezeACCESS® VL base stations operating in the license-exempt 5.8 GHz frequency, once the UK Radio Authority released the band for commercial use. The flexible network was easily reconfigured and expanded and the added bandwidth enabled several new applications including live streaming video between schools, voice-over-IP and security camera monitoring.
Website:
Practitioner Name: Stephen McKeown
Practitioner Tel: N/A
Practitioner E-mail: corporate-sales@alvarion.com
Vendor Name 1: ALVR
Vendor Title 1: Alvarion-HQ
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