Comments on: Anaheim to Consider Citywide Wi-Fi Franchise with Earthlink

By: Stefan

Stefan — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 04:32:28 +0000

Dear Dana,
I am sending this mail at 11:08 pm while sitting in my car across the street from Bryant Park. I am probably the “most frequent user” of free publick wi-fi since I spend many hours every day working in my car, which has been converted into a fully-equipped mobile office. I am an example of how “wi-fi-anywhere” will change the way we work in the future. Although my car is probably the only personally cosumized “office-Car”, I have no doubt that in the near future significant number of people will discover the “incredible” utilty of universal or city wide wi-fi. I am “impatiently” waiting for this city wide Wi-Fi so that I can work one day sitting in my parkrd car in the middle of Time Square and on the following day at the riverfront in Brooklyn and on the third day watching the shoppers on fifth avenue.

Stefan

By: Jerry Grasso

Jerry Grasso — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:31:25 +0000

Dana: give me a call and I’ll try to help you set something up. Jerry

By: Dana Spiegel

Dana Spiegel — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:26:49 +0000

Jerry,

Thanks for the feedback and clarification. I’m happy to hear that EarthLink is taking the socially and economically path when pitching (and winning) franchises and contracts for muniwireless. I certainly support all of the work that you are doing.

My writing was not so much about EarthLink’s involvement, but rather about how the Anaheim City Government handled and put out the RFP, and the requirements that they stipulated. That EarthLink advocated an open access model shows that you guys are progressive, but the City should have **required** this.

I and NYCwireless would be very interested in sitting down to talk with you futher about how we can work together to make muniwireless and Community Wireless work for everyone.

By: Jerry Grasso

Jerry Grasso — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 18:51:05 +0000

Dana: you’ve got a few points wrong. In EarthLink’s RFP for Anaheim, we advocated for an open access model, which is one of the reasons we won the contract. If you look at the minutes from last night’s city council meeting, you would see a discussion about this between the mayor, city council and EarthLink. We believe in open access, and that other competitors can offer their services over the network (we would wholesale to them, as ILECs and MSOs do to us for traditional broadband service).

Also, the agreement is for a ten year franchise, which can be ‘re-upped’ for two, five year segments. Also, in the minutes you would see our explanation that we built in plans for improving and upgrading the network as technology adapts and changes over the course of time. I’d be happy to set up a briefing between you and our executives, if you want to have a discussion. Thank you, Jerry Grasso, director, EarthLink