Wireless Community

Icon

March 5, 2007 • 11:48 pm 0

NYC Broadband Advisory Committee Meeting on March 30 in The Bronx

On March 30, the “New York City Broadband Advisory Committee”:6 will meet in the Bronx for the “first of five public hearings to both educate the public on broadband and learn from the public about their experiences, or lack of, with broadband and Internet technology in New York City.” Over the past couple of years, NYC Council Member Gale A. Brewer, based on the testimony of a number of New Yorkers, “including NYCwireless”:2, helped “create the Broadband Advisory Committee”:3 to try to move New York City to the forefront of broadband accessibility and affordability.

NYCwireless will be there to help represent the interests of free public Wi-Fi, which hasn’t had as extensive distribution as midtown and downtown Manhattan. We’ve heard from a number of people and organizations in the Bronx that there’s a tremendous interest in free public Wi-Fi. “We’ve been working with Professor John McMullen”:5 and his students at Monroe College to build more free hotspots in local businesses.

*If you have any interest in helping New York City get affordable, universal, ubiquitous high-speed internet access, you should join us at this meeting.*

The public hearing will be on March 30, from 9am-11am in the rotunda of “Bronx Borough Hall at 851 Grand Concourse”:4. Council Member Brewer and Borough President Carrion invite all Bronx residents, nonprofit organizations and businesses to testify about the availability and affordability — or lack of — of broadband (that is, a high-speed connection to the Internet) in their neighborhoods.

Some questions that the Committee has are:

# Why is a fast affordable Internet connection important to you?
# What do you consider an “affordable” fee to pay for an high-speed connection to the Internet?
# If you have a broadband connection, what do you use it for (e.g., help your child do his/her homework)?
# If don’t have broadband or if you had a faster connection to the Internet, what would you use it for (e.g., market your business on-line or look for a job)?

The hearing in the Bronx will kick-off a series of five public hearings that will be convened in every borough of New York City. Based on these hearings and with the help of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Advisory Committee will report their findings and recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

[1]http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/
[2]http://www.wirelesscommunity.info/2005/05/05/testimony-to-the-new-york-city-council’s-technology-in-government-committee/
[3]http://nyccouncil.info/issues/intros_act.cfm?intro=Int%200625%2D2005
[4]http://maps.google.com/?q=851%2BGrand%2BConcourse,%2BThe%2BBronx,%2BNY%2B(Bronx%2BBorough%2BHall)
[5]http://www.wirelesscommunity.info/2006/09/14/thank-you-letter-from-monroe-college/
[6]http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/

Filed under: Event, New York City, Policy, Urban Wireless

January 23, 2007 • 4:05 pm 0

AT&T is the T1000 of Corporations

According to Stephen Colbert:

Filed under: Network Neutrality, News, Policy

January 13, 2007 • 1:58 pm 0

Bill Moyers on Net Neutrality

At this weekend’s National Conference for Media Reform, “Bill Moyers”:1 spoke about Network Neutrality. He paints a clear picture about why we are fighting to ensure that the our country guarantees the internet’s first amendment protection and ensures the “equal access provision of the internet”.

[1]http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/index.html

Filed under: Network Neutrality, Policy

December 18, 2006 • 8:27 pm 0

Save the Internet.com: "Independence Day"

“SaveTheInternet.com”:1 has posted a great new movie about Network Neutrality:

There’s a lot of information at the “SaveTheInternet.com”:1 site, where you can sign a petition and contact your legislators.

[1]http://www.savetheinternet.com

Filed under: Network Neutrality, Policy

November 15, 2006 • 12:56 am 0

Distinguished Speaker Series at Polytechnic University

On Saturday November 18, I will be speaking at the Distinguished Speaker Series at Polytechnic University’s Technology Management program from 12:45 to 2pm. Nina Ziv, a professor at the University, asked me to speak to the executive students about NYCwireless, municipal wireless, and what’s going on in New York City.

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, Muniwireless, New York City, NYCwireless, Policy

November 9, 2006 • 12:14 am 0

America's Internet Disconnect

Michael J. Copps, a democratic member of the FCC, “just published one of the most fierce wake up calls”:1 for American politicians and the general public about how the USA has completely fallen behind in the broadband race. Especially now that the House and likely the Senate will see a complete change in direction and authority, its possible that some positive action can come of the heretofore impotent FCC and FTC in the matter of broadband competition and availability.

Everyone should read the “entirety of this article”:1:

bq. America’s record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow. It’s hurting our economy, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.

bq. …

bq. How have we fallen so far behind? Through lack of competition. As the Congressional Research Service puts it, U.S. consumers face a “cable and telephone broadband duopoly.” And that’s more like a best-case scenario: Many households are hostage to a single broadband provider, and nearly one-tenth have no broadband provider at all.

bq. …

bq. To begin with, the Federal Communications Commission — of which I am a member — must face up to the problem. Today the agency’s reports seem designed mostly to obscure the fact that we are falling behind the rest of the world. The FCC still defines broadband as 200 kilobits per second, assumes that if one person in a Zip code area has access to broadband then everyone does and fails to gather any data on pricing.

bq. The FCC needs to start working to lower prices and introduce competition. We must start meeting our legislative mandate to get advanced telecommunications out to all Americans at reasonable prices; make new licensed and unlicensed spectrum available; authorize “smart radios” that use spectrum more efficiently; and do a better job of encouraging “third pipe” technologies such as wireless and broadband over power lines. And we should recommend steps to Congress to ensure the FCC’s ability to implement long-term solutions.

[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701230.html

Filed under: Network Neutrality, News, Policy

October 18, 2006 • 8:00 am 0

Wednesday, Oct 18 @ 9pm on PBS: Moyers on America "The Net at Risk"

_From NYCwireless board member Joe Plotkin:_

Net Neutrality has been discussed vehemently and extensively on this list, so I urge everyone to watch Bill Moyer’s in-depth examination of this subject. It airs on Channel 13 tomorrow night Wed Oct 18th 9pm. It repeats 1:30am Saturday, October 21st (aka late Fri. night) and 2:00pm Sunday, October 22nd. Set your Tivo’s accordingly.

Additionally, some on this list have challenged the efficacy of the substantial work Bruce Kushnick and TeleTruth have done over the years. Bill Moyer’s team apparently disagrees, as they have made the editorial decision to feature Kushnick’s views and research.

Although I have not yet seen this episode, I believe this show will begin a long overdue, serious journalistic examination of the issues of network access and market power.

*Moyers on America Presents “The Net at Risk”.*
*PBS, (check local listings) Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 9PM, EDT*

Teletruth’s Bruce Kushnick and Tom Allibone are featured in “The New Digital Divide” segment.

Moyers on America presents a new, serious investigative analysis of the future of broadband, the Net and media–from municipalities trying to Wi-Fi or rewire their cities, to the large phone companies who claim that they ‘own the net’ or large media concerns who have the power to take control of the information and stories you see and hear.

The program has been divided into four segments.

h3. THE NET AT RISK

“http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/neutrality.html”:1

The debate is hot, the language heady, the metaphors many. Op-ed pages alternately bemoan “The End of the Internet” or curse “Net Neutrality Nonsense.”

h3. THE NEW DIGITAL DIVIDE

“http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/usworld.html”:2

Teletruth is featured. Check out the video–”In Korea and Japan customers are getting 100 Mbps services in both directions for about $40 bucks” – (That’s 100 times faster than America’s DSL services.)

“America’s screwed,” says Bruce Kushnick, a telecom analyst. “I mean, we basically are becoming technologically deficient. We’re close to the dinosaurs compared to what these other countries are going to be developing in the next couple years.”

Other sections include:

h3. COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

“http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/community.html”:3

“The Net @ Risk” takes viewers to Lafayette, Louisiana, where residents and officials took on their phone company, BellSouth, and their cable company, Cox Communications, and built their own high-speed fiber network after the firms refused to bring true broadband connections to their community.”

h3. BIG AND BIGGER MEDIA

“http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/bigger.html”:4

“In 1984 the number of companies owning a controlling interest in America’s media was 50 – today that number is six. Critics of media consolidation say it has led to fewer and fewer perspectives being presented–and a marked decrease in local news coverage.”

Teletruth believes America’s digital future is at stake, not to mention the future of the U.S. economy. We are pleased to be part of this important investigative report.

More: Read “Teletruth’s series for Harvard’s Nieman Watchdog project”:5 on telecommunications, the Internet, wireless and broadband.

For more about Teletruth, read “http://www.teletruth.org”:6

[1]http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/neutrality.html
[2]http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/usworld.html
[3]http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/community.html
[4]http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/bigger.html
[5]http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.viewContributor&bioid=130
[6]http://www.teletruth.org

Filed under: Event, Network Neutrality, News, Policy

September 6, 2006 • 12:30 am 4

Where's My New York City Wi-Fi?

Ah, how short is the memory of our media outlets.

Not 2 months ago, there were “a number”:3 of “reports”:2 about how Wi-Fi Salon + Nokia were going to bring free Wi-Fi to New York City Parks. Of course, those reports didn’t mention that we already have a bunch of free Wi-Fi hotspots in some of New York’s most prominent parks, like Bryant Park, City Hall Park, Madison Square Park, Union Square Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park, all of which were “NYCwireless”:1 projects.

But one thing these reports did mention was that our own City Council held a hearing, and “put a deadline”:4 on when Wi-Fi Salon should have its franchised parks online (after 2 years of virtually no hotspots under the Park Department’s oversight):

bq. At the City Council hearing, Robert L. Garafola, the department’s deputy commissioner for management and budget, said that the city had
extended the deadline to August.

bq. “We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer,” he said.

So, now that the summer is over, where are all of these Wi-Fi Parks? We’ve heard _nothing_ from Marshall about his company turning on these hotspots. The Parks Department and Commissioner Benepe have been silent. We’re now 30+ days beyond the *second* deadline that they set for Central Park, and close to that for the rest of their parks, and certainly we citizens have waited long enough.

Over this past summer, NYCwireless has brought online “a number of new hotspots”:5, including Brooklyn Bridge Park, Stuyvesant Cove Park, and Madison Square Park. We’ve launched (through the work of students at Monroe College) hotspots at a bunch of restaurants and gathering places in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Harlem. We’ve upgraded some of our hotspots that provide free Wi-Fi for affordable housing residents at some “Dunn Development”:7 & “Community Access”:6 buildings.

Of course, that’s not to say that the Parks Department hasn’t been involved. They tried to force the folks at the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza pay for insurance using taxpayer dollars (the “Friends of” organization is funded by the City Council) before they pulled out of the Parks Department Wi-Fi RFP. Now Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is getting free Wi-Fi with the help of NYCwireless. The Parks Department also forced the fully operational Madison Square Park hotspot (built by NYCwireless) offline for over a month because they didn’t want that hotspot online before the Parks Department had their hotspots online (and we’re still waiting for that to happen…).

*So, Mr. Benepe, our Commissioner of Parks, where is all the free Wi-Fi in our Parks that you promised us? Are we going to have to wait until the winter, freezing outside with our laptops on our snow covered laps? I hope not.*

[1]http://www.nycwireless.net
[2]http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060706/dath006.html?.v=57
[3]http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=nokia+wi-fi+park&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
[4]http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@googlegroups.com/msg00281.htmlhttp://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16890
[5]http://auth.nycwireless.net/hotspots_map.php
[6]http://www.communityaccess.net/
[7]http://www.dunndev.com/

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

July 30, 2006 • 7:33 am 0

Podcast Interview on Wi-Fi Networking News

Glenn Fleishman of “Wi-Fi Networking News”:2 interviewed me this past week on his podcast series.

In the podcast, Glenn and I speak about NYCwireless and the work it has done and continues to do in New York City. We also cover: NYCwireless’ efforts to put Wi-Fi in New York parks, the challenges with that, and what’s happening in Central Park, and an RFP issued by the economic development arm of the city that will examine the state of broadband across all the boroughs and what might be done to improve access to the Internet to all residents.

“Podcast [40 min., 20 MB, MP3]“:1

[1]http://www.wifinetnews.com/audio/wnn_012_dana_spiegel.mp3
[2]http://www.wifinetnews.com/

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

July 2, 2006 • 10:48 pm 0

NYCEDC RFP for Broadband Feasibility Study

The NYCEDC, a 501c3 non-profit like NYCwireless, released an “RFP for a Broadband Feasibility Study”:1 to “deliver a thorough, objective, fact-based feasibility study of the current state of broadband in New York City and to explore whether there is a need for a citywide broadband network as a municipal initiative and whether such would be legally, technically, practicably and economically feasible for New York City.”

While generally I’d be supportive of such a study, there are a few things which concern me greatly about the RFP that the NYCEDC has released:

* The EDC keeps trumpeting the fact that “broadband availability is already high” in NYC. While this may be true as compared to other cities in the US, this isn’t true (and has been clearly shown false) as compared to other cities of similar size and stature across the world.

* Even if broadband availability is high in NYC, this is hardly the point. Internet adoption is about how much people are actively making use of the internet, not whether they could get access to the internet if they wanted to. This is, perhaps, the most troubling aspect of the EDC’s attitude. Adoption is about more than just technical feasibility (which itself is partially lacking in NYC); its about affordability and usefulness, and about whether people have the means to use the internet, including the availability of cheap computers.

* The RFP doesn’t call out non-profits and other community-based broadband initiatives that are already in place as required parties to be studied. While it might be assumed that non-profits should by default be included, very often they need to be highlighted since they often don’t have the resources to reach out to whomever is running the study to make themselves known.

* The study doesn’t specifically exclude telcos, cablecos, other ISPs, and other technology service providers to the City, EDC, or DOITT as ineligible for conducting the study. Furthermore, it doesn’t exclude those parties that have any relationship to those telcos, cablecos, other ISPs, and technology service providers as also being ineligible. Since such companies would represent a crystal-clear conflict of interest for the execution and outcome of the study, they should be explicitly excluded from even participating in the RFP. Incidentally, this would exclude NYCwireless from being a respondent as well.

If any of these concerns bears out in the selection of company and their delivery of their report, it would be both a terrible waste of time and taxpayer money on the City’s part. I hope for their sake that the EDC takes a more aggressive role in the future to really help NYC’s economic development, and that the results of this study play into a long term plan for NYC’s economic and internet well-being that the EDC has thus far failed to articulate.

[1]http://newyorkbiz.com/RFP/?id=BroadbandStudyRFP&download=Y&title=Consultant%20for%20Broadband%20Feasibility%20Study

Filed under: New York City, Policy

Twitter

Blog Stats

  • 451 hits
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.