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06/05/2008Citywide Wi-Fi Class of '08: Philadelphia's Harshest Lessons Were on Business Side
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CAPTION: Municipal-wireless project leaders assembled at the W2i Digital Cities Joint State Briefing in Riverside (CA) on May 13, 2008 (l–r): Lynn Willenbring, CIO, Minneapolis; Steve Reneker, CIO, Riverside; Damon Wei, Emerging Services, AT&T; John DePolis, CIO, Pomona; Robb McIntosh, Former CIO, Anaheim; Ron Robinson, Sr. Vice President, BelAir Networks.
As far back as September of last year, W2i observed that it would likely be smaller and medium-sized US cities that would begin providing the success stories that would gradually soften the skepticism around local-government broadband-wireless networks. Ever since Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced that the future of his city was "not in line but online" and called for a citywide Wi-Fi infrastructure to connect the city's residents, government, industry, and the public began craving positive proof points. As Philadelphia's single-user public-access Wi-Fi project fades into memory, we learn this June that Oklahoma City (population 538,000) has been quietly expanding its network to 555 square miles, providing applications for police, fire and government workers. Oklahoma City CIO Mark Meier began telling this story at the W2i Digital Cities Convention in Houston as far back as February 2006. Houston's deal with EarthLink collapsed a year and a half later. With the stories of smaller US cities firmly in mind, on May 13, 2008, W2i Digital Cities arrived in Riverside, California, (population 305,000) to see what lessons can be learned from these midsized deployments. How have small and midsized cities done appropriate risk assessment for the technology, business models and time to project completion? How have they handled the myriad other variables that sent all those high-profile projects the way of the dinosaur? Not surprisingly, it has a lot to do with the business model. "We really did take some lessons from Philadelphia and made some conscious decisions about going in a different direction because there were aspects that weren't going to work as a financial business model as well as weren't going to work in our environment," said Lynn Willenbring (Audio: MP3), CIO of Minneapolis, on the panel "Local-Government Wireless Networks and the Role of Anchor Tenancy." Minneapolis has crafted the country's leading anchor-tenancy model to ensure network sustainability. Its agreement with USI Wireless includes technology replacement and a guaranteed fixed service level, service-level agreements (SLAs) and fixed rates for the city and residents. To provide free access for CTCs such as libraries and community buildings, the model includes an advancement from the service provider ($500,000) to a Digital Inclusion Fund. "We'd be honored if anybody follows our model, but also take some lessons from us like we did from Philadelphia, because I don't think anybody's done it perfect yet," Willenbring said. Riverside has an anchor-tenancy agreement with AT&T to provide coverage across 55 square miles, including a free service at 512 Kbps. Steve Reneker (Audio: MP3), CIO, said: "Even though we know the Wi-Fi networks out there can go at higher speed, if I had to do it over again, I'd still do it at 512K, and it's really from a business perspective. We did not want to compete against our carriers that have spent millions of dollars in infrastructure here. We learned from Philadelphia that's not the good business model." The City of Anaheim (population 340,000) is patiently waiting for a new suitor to take over its abandoned deployment, which was once on track to become the largest in the U.S. "Any day now we expect to get a letter from [EarthLink] saying they're going to bail on us," said Robb McIntosh (Audio: MP3), former CIO of Anaheim. "I know they're looking for a vendor to take over the network they invested in in Anaheim." McIntosh drew a laugh when he looked at panelist Damon Wei from AT&T. "Right now, I don't think they have one," McIntosh said, "unless, Damon, you want to step up...." in 2005, AT&T was one of three finalists bidding to build Philadelphia's network. Today, it is supporting three deployments in the U.S. — Riverside, St. Louis and San Antonio. "We're kind of a late entrant into the marketplace, so some explanation might suffice here," Wei said. "One of the things we're looking to do is understand how the public in Riverside would use Wi-Fi services. We want to better understand how Wi-Fi plays in the outdoor market. Certainly we have interest in how the business model market works, especially involving ad-supported business, and as far as muni Wi-Fi performance, that is a subject that would be of fairly significant interest to a carrier. Also, we want to trial public-safety applications on our networks." Riverside, St. Louis and San Antonio are all launched in some fashion. "So far," Wei said, "the results are promising."
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Related Items:
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• Philly Eyes Options Should EarthLink Pull Out
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• Riverside `08
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