Wireless Community

I was recently interviewed for an article in the New York Press titled “NEW YORK: NOT-SO-WIRED CITY – Thanks to the big telcos, we lag in installing a wifi overlay”:1. The article talks about how, with the exception of NYCwireless’ parks hotspots, NYC seems to be lagging behind in the broad deployments of Wi-Fi networks that have been taken up by other major (and lots of smaller) cities across the country.

bq. New York City lags far behind all of these municipalities. “Politicians [here] don’t know the difference between a server and a waiter,” said Andrew Rasiej, who ran for public advocate last year on a platform of providing municipal wireless broadband. “This is a city that made most of its money in the Industrial Age, and the people who control most of its power structures are Baby Boomers who don’t know much about technology.”

bq. The city inched closer to municipal wireless broadband last December when the City Council passed a bill creating a special taskforce to advise Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on technological options for “unwiring” New York, but this has stalled in the new session. Impatient activist groups have taken matters into their own hands.

bq. NYCwireless has installed wireless networks in Bryant Park, Union Square Park, Tompkins Square Park, Bowling Green Park, City Hall Park, and South Street Seaport. The group also maintains a database for users to identify neighborhood “hotspots.” And in keeping with the original, co-operative sentiments of Jones’ activity, the group provides open-source software, free of charge, to any apartment building or block that wants to build its own “mesh” wireless network.

bq. For around $5,000, a tech-savvy apartment resident can attach a “router” to a physical Internet connection in the building, and plug in two or three access points at electrical points on each floor of a typical six-storey building, according to NYCwireless Executive Director Dana Spiegel. These access points transmit wireless signals to residents on each floor, creating a “mesh”: a network that has no identifiable center—or owner—because each computer added creates more paths of connection.

bq. Organizations like NYCwireless can afford to give away their creations—often enhanced versions of other groups’ work across the country—because they’ve entirely bypassed the hefty research and development investment costs of the major telecommunications companies. “It’s not this black box, über-technology that requires zillions of dollars to do,” said Sascha Meinrath, project director of the Champaign-Urbana [Illinois] Community Wireless Network, whose software was developed by part-time volunteers sitting around drinking coffee and testing ideas.

bq. To many, the municipal wireless movement challenges the very concept of ownership: making a traditionally privately held utility available to everyone for next to nothing. Spiegel said communal networks brought people together. Discussing the recent New York Times feature, “Hey neighbor, stop piggy-backing on my wireless,” Spiegel said, “That’s completely wrong. It should be, ‘Hey neighbor, it’s great to finally meet you.’”

One of the corrections that needs to be made about the cost of building a wireless apartment building is that it should cost around $5,000 to light up the *entire* building, not just a single apartment. This price is based on a few assumptions about the size and construction of a building, but is well in line with some of the projects on which we’ve worked.

bq. Unsurprisingly, the giant telephone companies have made no secret of their hostility to the new technology. They are currently lobbying intensely at a federal level and in 15 states to pass laws banning municipalities from providing free wireless broadband, citing anti-monopoly concerns. Several traditional companies, including New York City’s main Internet providers Verizon and Time Warner Cable, impose non-sharing policies on users.

bq. Spiegel pointed out that there was no law against sharing an Internet connection. NYCwireless recommends ISPs that do not restrict use in this way, and instructs users how to set up security software to prevent harm to computers on a network.

bq. Groups like NYCwireless see wireless broadband as bridging socio-economic divides as well as bringing smaller communities together. While Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has openly dismissed Internet access as a priority for low-income communities, NYCwireless secretary Laura Forlano describes a home broadband connection as helping users to find jobs and retail bargains. “Everyone knows public libraries are crowded and can only offer limited time online,” she said. “If you’re a single mother, you may only be able to go online at midnight.”

[1]http://www.nypress.com/19/14/news&columns/feature.cfm

Filed under: Community Wireless, Interview, New York City, News, NYCwireless, Policy