Wireless Tech Chat

The New Jersey state Senate has passed a bill that will allow cities to develop and deploy municipal WiFi networks. This will give them the option to build the networks themselves or work with a private company to create them.

This has been a long time in coming for my home state. Ever since the muni WiFi phenomenon began a couple of years ago, New Jersey has pretty much stood on the sidelines with a few exceptions, e.g. Ocean City, Summit, and Elizabeth.

Of course, as any informed New Jersey resident (or viewer of The Sopranos) knows, politics is a blood sport in this state, and there surely will be a lot of turf battling and lobbying between providers, telcos, cable companies, and government officials as to who will be the ones to bring wireless service to the people.

Things ought to be very interesting in the Garden State soon enough…

[Via NJ.com]

Yeah, I know, I was just being facetious.

iPhone mania officially begins this Friday, and we’re seeing multiple reviews from multiple news sources weighing in with their opinions on the device that Apple belives will change the way the public will use cellphones.

David Pogue, who is one of the best tech writers around, has written his review in today’s New York Times (see link below), and he believe that although flawed, the iPhone is indeed revolutionary. It offers the functionality that people want in a (fairly) small form factor, and that people will finally have one device for a variety of uses, inlcuding a web browser, a camera, an organizer and, oh by the way, a cellphone.

Since I have yet to hold an iPhone in my hand and check it out for myself, for the time being I will have to rely on what others are saying about it. I happen to be an AT&T customer, so I will have the ability to switch to an iPhone fairly easily, but let’s not forget about the increased costs that come with getting this new “status symbol,” with the phones going for up to $600 (or more), depending on the storage size.

Reports indicate there will be three monthly plans with a minimum two-year service contracte available: the $59.99 plan includes 450 minutes of voice time; a $79.99 plan includes 900 minutes; and a $99.99 plan includes 1,350 minutes. All three offer 200 text messages, unlimited data services, minutes that roll over month-to-month and mobile-to-mobile calls. Let’s not forget that $36 activation fee. (Couldn’t Apple/AT&T work something out where that activation fee is waived for say, the first 100,000 customers?)

Anyway, Friday will certainly be a frenzied day in the cellphone world. Am I going to be one of the many hundreds of thousands who will plunk down their hard-earned cash for an iPhone? Probably not–Apple is already working on iPhone version 2, and I could see it coming out for the holiday shopping season. (I don’t have any inside info, just my own speculation.)

However, Apple and AT&T will be quite happy with the increased revenue stream beginning in about 48 hours. Just not from me–yet.

[Via New York Times]

Ocean City, New Jersey is one of my favorite vacation spots. It is one of the jewels of the state’s beach resorts, and is a major tourist attraction. It also is a rapidly growing community with more full-time residents moving in, so more municipal services are going to be needed and wanted as time goes by.

With that in mind, the city council recently issued a RFP for the development and deployment of a citywide wireless network. Plans call for a basic free service with enhanced fee-paid service tiers.

This could be a nice little coup for a muni WiFi provider because the city anticipates that the vendor could realize a profit potential of roughly $13 million over the first five years of network operation, and that could grow higher as the city continues to evolve into a year-round residence community.

The city is also going out about the right away with very specific and defnitive wants listed in their RFP. For example, they spell out theirrequirements for basic outdoor wireless service, guaranteed indoor wireless service, and government and public safety wireless service.

[Via MuniWireless.com]

The on-again, off-again wireless network proposed for Sacramento, CA is now back on again after the city council approved a plan this week to cover most of the city by the fall of 2009.

Plans call for free connections from locations covering 95 perecent of the city to an advertiser-supported network that will be built and managed by Sacramento Metro Connect. The city will buy service from the group and will allow equipment to be installed on city-owned infrastructure. In addition, enhanced service will be available for monthly fees ranging from $15 to $50 a month, depending on speed.

This project has had its share of ups and downs–last year, MobilePro Corp., which had the bid to build the network, pulled out because they did not want to build a free network, and the city had to basically start from scratch.

It remains to be seen if free municipal wireless networks will survive, but we’ll have a better idea in the near future.

[Via Sacramento Bee]

Various reports are indicating that the city of Chicago is getting closer to announcing the awarding the contract to build its wireless network. The winning bidder stands to get a nice chunk of change out of the project, which is estimated to cost at least $30 million.

The buzz is that there are two bidding teams that have made it to the final round–AT&T/Motorola and EarthLink/Tropos Networks. It’s being said that AT&T/Motorola has a slight edge, but as we all know, EarthLink has won many large-scale muni WiFi contracts over the last couple of years and they are not to be discounted. Plus, Chicago city officials are probably keeping a close eye on their work in Philadelphia (among other locales) to see how things may transpire within their own city.

There doesn’t seem to be any sort of timetable as to when a decision will be made, but one could estimate that some word will come down within the next business quarter. However, as we’ve seen many times before, these types of projects can go through multiple delays, and with some of the backlash against muni WiFi getting a bit louder, this project may not get off the ground by the end of this year. Time will tell…

[Via Unstrung]

With all the talk about U.S. cities pondering the establishment of wireless networks, let’s not forget that muni WiFi is being adopted in cities and towns spanning the globe.

In this instance, the Auckland (New Zealand) City Council is looking at bringing a wireless network to its residents by 2010. One of the prevailing reasons they wish to pursue this project is the possibility of enhancing the local economy in order to compete on a global scale.

It’s still a question as to whether muni WiFi will play a role in the future economic development of a city, but the business model is under constant development, and it’ll be interesting how it shakes out–both in the U.S. and throughout the world.

[Via Computerworld New Zealand]

All eyes will soon be on Philadelphia in the near future as the city and EarthLink have announced they will be moving forward with their plans to connect the entire city to a wireless network.

Recently, a 15-square-mile pilot project was installed in a section of the city and according to city and EarthLink officials, all went well which prompted them to make the commitment to move ahead and build the network to cover the entire 135 square miles that make up Philadelphia.

Philadelphia has been in the citywide wireless network spotlight for a few years now, and it finally seems that all of the planning, talk, debate, and whatever else will finally be put aside and the real action will soon began. There’s no guarantee that this will be a slam-dunk win-win for everyone, but the concept of big-city wireless networking is about to face its biggest test, and it’s up to the city of Philadelphia and EarthLink to prove that the idea works.

Of course, there will be bumps and bruises along the way–in the pilot project, system availability was at about 74 percent, so there’s definitely room for improvement here. However, let’s understand that Philadlephia is a large city and that there is a lot of wrok that needs to be done in order to make the system work at a high level, so a level of flexibility is necessary in this instance.

In any case, the build-out of Philadelphia’s citywide wireless network is about to take place, and the entire muni WiFi world will be watching.

[Via Philly.com]

Claiming it to be the first of its kind in the nation, Boston’s police commissioner has announced a new text messaging system that will allow for the sending of anonymous tips to the police.

According to Commissioner Edward F. Davis, a tipster would dial CRIME (27463) and enter the word “tip”. The tipster then gets a message from the tipline to call 911, and then another message that asks for details on the incident (date, time, place, etc.). The tipster is also prompted to describe the type of incident by typing in a letter choice–A for violent crime, B for drugs, C for gang activity, or D for other.

The department stresses that all text messages are anonymous. Although the system is geared toward convincing younger people to send in information if they see something that would require a police response, anyone can (and is encouraged) to use it.

Other cities, including New York and Los Angeles, are experimenting with a similar system, but Boston is the first to actually put one in place.

[Via Boston.com]

Toledo, Ohio’s director of information and communications technology said in a recent letter to the editor that the criticism of muni WiFi networks causing cities to experience “financial disasters” is off base.

According to Patsy F. Scott, Toledo will follow the model being adopted by other cities in which the city will contract with a private company to build and manage the network. In return, Toledo will function as an “anchor partner” whereby local government entities such as the police and fire departments will use the network in order to provide a minimal revenue stream. Of course, the expectation is that residents and businesses will sign up for network access and pay monthly user fees which will help keep it running for a long time to come.

This is an approach that more cities are turning to when it comes to muni WiFi. Rather than relying too heavily on the selling of advertising and sponsorhips to pay for a wireless network, local governments are signing on as anchor tenants in order to get the project rolling and to help streamline services.

[Via Toledo Blade]

The historic Sacramento Valley Train Station is going modern with the introduction of a new WiFi network. Passengers and others can access the free network by registering for a username and password good for 12 hours at the Amtrak ticket counter.

The train station, which serves over 1 million passengers a year, is another in a growing list of commuter outlets that are installing WiFi networks in order to keep their customers connected while traveling. We are seeing many more bus and train stations adding this feature to their portfolio of services, which are mainly geared toward passengers commuting to and from work, but certainly are available for those folks who are traveling on vacation or for other purposes.

[Via Sacramento Business Journal]

The owners of a small telecommunications company based in Upstate New York editorialize that government should not get into the business of being broadband wireless provider or as a partner with a single dominant carrier. In their opinion, local and state governments should take steps to insure that providers have access to infrastructure (light poles, land, etc.) so that these companies can install their equipment and create opportunities for residents, businesses, and visitors to login to a wireless network. In addition, they rightly point out that WiFi is just the first step–WiMax will eventually provide much broader coverage within the next two years, especially in more rural areas.

In theory, they are on the right track. Local and state governments should not become wireless network providers, but they should practice oversight to make sure that companies in the business are delivering on their promises, particularly because they are leveraging locally-owned structures to provide wireless service. In other words, governments just can’t allow companies to just swoop in and take up valuable local resources without any checks and balances.

[Via Rochester Democrat and Chronicle]

The emerging city of Santa Clarita, California is considering the development and deployment of a wireless network that would cover the entire municipality.

The Southern California Edison utility company is seeking state approval to have cities place wireless antennas on light poles, and if no opposition by the public is entered into the record within 90 days (as of May 23), Santa Clarita, among other SoCal cities, can explore launching a WiFi network.

Since Southern California Edison would charge cities for the space on the poles for these antennas, it would stand to reason that access to these networks would entail user fees. But as the shift toward paid access to citywide networks has progressed without too much of a hitch, it would seem likely that Santa Clarita, among others, will soon go wireless.

Can LA itself be far behind?

[Via LA Daily News]

Commuters in parts of the Bay Area are in line to be the recipients of a new WiFi network that will give them information such as real-time traffic reports and weather updates as they make their way to their destinations behind the wheel.

If approved by the various municipality and county boards (at a cost of $150 million dollars to be underwritten by the likes of IBM, Cisco Systems, among others), the network will cover every city in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, which equals about 1,500 square miles. It will be accessible to all households, businesses, and emergency response agencies such as police and fire departments.

Transponders will be placed in about 40 different locations tretching from El Camino Real to San Francisco. Here’s the key question: How will drivers view this information? Will it be sent to their cellphones, or will they have to have a special viewing screen placed inside their vehicles?

This is an important consideration because there are many complaints about drivers being distracted by being on their cellphones and/or sending text messages while they’re driving. This sort of system could be the cause of numerous accidents caused by careless drivers. It might be worth testing this system under all types of conditions before deploying it to the masses.

[Via ABC7News.com]

What if they built a wireless network and nobody came to use it?

It seems that in the downtown area of Macon, Georgia, the free wireless network hasn’t seen too much usage. All the people who helped to put it together say it will be a boon to the local economy as well as offer local entities such as the Police Department save time on bureaucracy, but at this point it appears the city’s resident have met the wireless network with a collective shrug of the shoulders.

However, let’s face some facts. The network was unveiled on April 30, so it’s only been in operation for about six weeks. There are 40 hotspots in existence, and more will be introduced over time that will cover other parts of the metropolitan area.

Plus, from what has been reported, NewTown Macon as well as other supporters of the network haven’t exactly been publicizing it as heavily as a new initiative such as this should be. Just because it’s new and (supposedly) cool doesn’t mean people are going to flock to use it. You have to sell the benefits of it in order to get usage out of it.

It’s a very simple equation, but apparently that message hasn’t gotten through yet to some places where wireless networks are undergoing some fits and starts.

[Via Macon.com]

The state of West Virginia has approved a wireless system to help emergency responders track and communicate with trapped coal miners. The system will soon be ready to be used in the state’s 177 coal mines.

This all has come about since the tragic deaths early last year of 12 miners who were trapped at the Sago Mine. An investigation later revealed that faulty radio communications was largely to blame for the inability for rescuers to get to the victims in time to save them.

The system will be provided by Canada’s Varis Mine Technology Ltd., but certainly other companies will begin marketing their services to mining companies throughout the U.S.

What makes this bill tougher is that all West Virginia state minesmust submit plans for wireless communications and tracking by July 31, so there will be no room for excuses.

This is good news and will hopefully prevent any tragedies like the one at Sago.

[Via The Times West Virginian]