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October 29, 2007 • 3:55 pm 0

ITIF Paper: The Role of Competition in a National Broadband Policy

The “Information Technology and Innovation Foundation”:1 has just released a great research paper titled “**The Role of Competition in a National Broadband Policy**”:2:

This paper argues that the consensus in favor of more broadband competition ignores the fact that because broadband displays natural monopoly or duopoly characteristics there are significant trade-offs between more competition and goals of efficiency, innovation, low prices, and higher speeds and broader deployment. As a result, it’s a mistake for policy makers to assume that if they simply “push the competition lever” all the problems with broadband policy will be solved. Some problems will recede, but others are likely to emerge. As a result, if policymakers seek to maximize not only societal welfare, but consumer welfare, they need to balance the push for more competition with the need to create an efficient industry structure.

Seems very insightful and reasonable guide.

[1]http://www.itif.org/index.php
[2]http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=87

Filed under: New York City, Policy, Urban Wireless

March 12, 2007 • 8:22 am 0

DailyWireless Publishes 10 Most Connected Cities Report

“DailyWireless”:1, a great site with lots of technical and non-technical in-depth articles about wireless technology has published a report about the “The 10 Most Connected Cities in the World”:2.

Unfortunately New York City isn’t one of them. In fact, about half of them are cities in Asia, and most of the rest are ones in Europe. When the rest of the world is beating us at technology, we’ve really got to start working harder to catch up!

[1]http://www.dailywireless.com/
[2]http://www.dailywireless.com/features/most-connected-cities-030607/

Filed under: International, New York City, News, Urban Wireless

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

October 30, 2006 • 11:30 am 0

PodCast: Michael Lewis on the Wireless Harlem Initiative

At our last “NYCwireless”:2 meeting, Michael Lewis, Executive Director of “Wireless Harlem”:1 gave a talk about the work he and his team have been doing to bring a form of community developed and supported ubiquitous wireless to Harlem.

His talk was fascinating, and we spoke at length afterwards in our Q&A about some of the more interesting details, especially about how New Yorkers really need to talk things into their own hands and build affordable, ubiquitous wireless themselves, since our administration doesn’t seem to be doing much to pursue this idea.

NYCwireless and Wireless Harlem are working together–we’re going to be helping bring both public space (read parks) Wi-Fi, and help with some of the community outreach. Its very exciting seeing how energized this part of New York City has become about wireless!

“Michael Lewis on the Wireless Harlem Initiative PodCast”:4 (m4a, 23MB)

“Michael’s presentation”:3 is also available (PDF).

[1]http://www.wirelessharlem.org
[2]http://www.nycwireless.net
[3]http://www.nycwireless.net/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=51
[4]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/top.jpgwp-content/uploads/2006/10/20061025_wireless_harlem_nycwireless_presentation.m4a

Filed under: Community Wireless, Muniwireless, New York City, NYCwireless, Urban Wireless

July 3, 2006 • 2:00 pm 0

Help Needed: City-wide Wi-Fi survey mapping project

NYCwireless has been engaged to create a map of New York City that includes city-wide Wi-Fi survey information (similar to “PIP’s map”:1).

We are looking for people to help us perform the survey (driving every street with Wi-Fi survey gear to gather data, analyzing data, creating the map, etc.), and especially a particularly motivated person to manage the project.

Please contact me if you are interested in participating.

This project will have very wide distribution (likely to be published in a magazine), and should be the largest single wi-fi survey conducted in a single geographic area.

[1]http://publicinternetproject.org/research/research_sum.html

Filed under: New York City, NYCwireless, Urban Wireless

May 16, 2006 • 7:33 am 0

News Stories from about NYC Council Hearing on Parks-based Wi-Fi

Here are some news stories from yesterday’s hearing on the NYC Parks Department and their plans for hotspots.

h2. “New York Times: Deadline Set for Wireless Internet in Parks”:1

bq. “[NYCwireless], a nonprofit group that did the technical work for those projects, has also set up networks at Union Square, Tompkins Square and Stuyvesant Cove Parks, and is building a network at Brooklyn Bridge Park this year.
So far, the city’s own efforts have paled compared with those achievements by private groups.”

h2. “New York Sun: New York Parks To Offer Free Web Access”:2

bq. “For the many New Yorkers seemingly locked to their laptops, the expansion of wireless access cannot come fast enough. But one suggestion at yesterday’s hearing – taking Wi-Fi to the city’s beaches – had even a leading wireless advocate issuing words of caution: “I think it’s a wonderful idea, but you have to be careful about getting sand in your laptop,” the executive director of [NYCwireless], Dana Spiegel, said.”

h2. “Newsday: Wireless Internet access urged for NYC parks”:3

bq. “We believe that free Internet is an amenity and should be provided to all New Yorkers just as grass, trees and benches are,” said Dana Spiegel, executive director of NYCwireless, a nonprofit organization that has worked with business groups and park boosters to set up wireless Internet access in several parks and open spaces.”

h2. More Headlines

*”BBC: Central Park to be wireless hub”:10*
*”New York Post: CENTRAL PK. TO BECOME A WEB SITE”:9*
*”WNBC: Techies Urge Wireless Web Access In NYC Park”:4*
*”WCBS: Wi-Fi Internet Access In NYC Parks?”:5*
*”SILive: Wireless Internet access urged for NYC parks”:6*
*”Spotlighting News: New York Central Park With WiFi”:7*
*”All Headline News: Deadline Set For Wireless Internet In Parks”:8*
*”Technology Review: Wi-Fi Coming to Parks in New York City”:11*

[1]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/nyregion/16wifi.html
[2]http://www.nysun.com/article/32788
[3]http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–parks-wi-fi0515may15,0,3939253.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
[4]http://www.wnbc.com/news/9221264/detail.html
[5]http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_136070920.html
[6]http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1147739966322390.xml&storylist=simetro
[7]http://www.spotlightingnews.com/article.php?news=2201
[8]http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003589801
[9]http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/68590.htm
[10]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4988792.stm
[11]http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16890

Filed under: Interview, New York City, News, Policy, Urban Wireless

April 30, 2006 • 2:54 pm 0

Wi-Fi in Central Park

Aric Boyles, creator of “CentralPark.com”:1, recently asked visitors of his website whether they’d like to see a free hotspot in Central Park. The results are overwhelming, but hardly surprising:

p=. !http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/04/wi-fi_meetup_logo.pngwp-content/uploads/2006/04/Picture%202.png!:1

We’re trying to work with him to see what we can do to help those 87%!

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

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

March 7, 2006 • 12:26 am 0

Lily Pad Hotspots Cover Cincinnati With Free Wi-Fi

Lily Pad, a non-profit in Cincinnati, has “developed an innovative model”:1 for deploying hotspots throughout that city:

bq. Called Lily Pad, the partnership combines efforts from the City of Cincinnati, Time Warner Cable, and the Lily Pad non-profit organization. The endeavor has already resulted in the establishment of more than 20 Lily Pads or “pods,” each with numerous hotspots and still more access points. Another 55 or more are slated to be established in the coming weeks.

bq. …

bq. Following a model popular on many U.S. highways — the “Adopt A Highway” program — the Lily Pad group enlisted volunteers and designed a system that called for small donations to sponsor individual hotspots for three years. “A family might sponsor a community square for $150 a month,” said Rybold, “or a larger area for $500.”

This sounds like a very interesting idea, and is really just a more formalized and accessible version of NYCwireless’ “community hotspots”:2. The model is a great way to build community, by creating visibility around people who give back to their neighbors — an idea that NYCwireless supports.

[1]http://www.techweb.com/headlines_week/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=181401221
[2]http://www.nycwireless.net/hotspot

Filed under: Community Wireless, Muniwireless, News, Urban Wireless

February 22, 2006 • 1:17 pm 1

NYC Parks Department Releases Second Wi-Fi RFP

The New York City Parks Department earlier this week released an RFP (CWP-WiFi 2/06, email “Slater Gray”:mailto:Slater.Gray@parks.nyc.gov) for Wi-Fi service in 6 parks (most in Brooklyn, 1 in Manhattan). This RFP comes about 2 years after they released their first RFP, which offered Wi-Fi service in about 17 NYC Parks. The only respondent to the original RFP was Wi-Fi Salon, which has yet to make good on its promise to deploy all of these parks — Marshall Brown, the only Wi-Fi Salon employee as far as we can tell — has only deployed a network at “The Battery”:2. Plans for the rest of Wi-Fi Salon’s are currently on hold as Marshall tries to secure sponsors for his other parks, a process that has taken almost 2 years.

The new RFP gets some things right and some things wrong:

*The Good:*

* All network service must be free. This is a policy that NYCwireless has been promoting since we began, and it seems that the NYC Parks Department has finally caught on.
* Interference issues must be addressed. This is an FCC requirement, but its nice to see the Parks Department not overstepping its jurisdiction in this case.

*The Bad:*

* The Parks Department is expecting some form of fee payment for the franchise.
* Each Park must receive a separate $700 application fee and proposal.
* The RFP doesn’t specify that service should be Wi-Fi. I can’t imagine that any company would deploy service using another wireless technology, but frankly the Parks Department is not representing the people of this city when they don’t include this as a requirement.
* There’s no minimum speed requirement, nor is there any indication that *all* internet service should be free. What’s to stop a company from offering free slow service and offering real wireless broadband only if you pay them?
* Coverage is required on park grounds only. Why not require that coverage be in the park and in the surrounding street and sidewalk areas as well? As more people use VOIP wireless phones, and public service sector users grow it only makes sense to build this network as far a d wide as possible.
* Companies have 10 business days to repair equipment. Granted, if you are selling advertisement, you should have enough incentive to keep the network running 24/7, but 10 days? Any internet or broadband company that could have 10 business days (1/2 a month) to repair equipment would be out of business almost immediately. How about putting some teeth in this service contract.

That the Parks Department is requiring a franchising fee is perhaps the most onerous requirement. They just don’t get it that free public Wi-Fi is an amenity within a park, just like grass, trees, and a bench. Its exactly this requirement that has shut out free Wi-Fi from being provided in more parks across the city. I’d suggest that all applicants offer to pay the park $0.

[2]http://www.portalize.net/battery/

Filed under: New York City, News, Urban Wireless

February 16, 2006 • 4:30 pm 0

Wi-Fi Planet: Big Apple Wi-Fi…When?

“Wi-Fi Planet has an article”:1 that investigates if and when New York City will have a unbiquitous Wi-Fi network. The article, however, is a clear misrepresentation of reality.

Inexplicably, they have failed to even mention the dozen or so public hotspots that NYCwireless has helped create in New York City’s parks and other public spaces, including Bryant Park, Union Square Park, City Hall Park, and the South Street Seaport.

By leaving out this information, the article gives the false impression that New York City doesn’t have a vibrant community of people who, though community wireless and non-profit means, have given free Wi-Fi to a sizable percentage of residents. Gerry Blackwell, the author, implies that New York could only gain some form of Wi-Fi network through municipal or solely private investment. *NYCwireless has proven over the past five years that community and non-profit means should be a component of any such network, and that as a non-profit, we’ve done more for the development of Wi-Fi in this city than private companies and government agencies combined.*

[1]http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3585761

Filed under: Community Wireless, Muniwireless, New York City, News, Urban Wireless

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