January 19, 2012 Minutes - SW Communications Committee

SouthWest Common Council
Communications Committee Minutes
Meeting Date: 01/19/12

Attendance:
John Boutet (Location19), Eleanor Coleman (SWAN)

TOPIC
Presentation: Devise survey for determining who would benefit/make use of free Wi-Fi

NOTES

We devised the following survey and plan to test it out at the Saturday January 28, 2012

Missing Person Event at the Willson Commencement Accademy Cafeteria from 11am to 3pm.

SW Quadrant Wi-Fi Survey Date _____________________

Street _______________________________________________ Zip Code ____________

Does your home have a computer? ___ yes ___no

If yes, do you have Internet? ___ yes ___no Wi-Fi? ___ yes ___no

If yes: ___cable ___dial-up ___DSL Other __________________________

Do you have an email address? ___ yes ___no

If you use a computer outside of the home, where is it located?

PLACE ADDRESS

Library

School

Relative’s House

Recreation Center

Church

Do you have access to a laptop/I-Pad/Notebook/Tablet? ___ yes ___no

If yes, does it have Wi-Fi? ___ yes ___no

Can you use your cell phone to get the Internet? ___ yes ___no

OPTIONAL:

Name __________________________________ Phone _____________________

Email _____________________________________________

Downloadable Survey Form:

Wi-Fi Survey Jan2012.doc

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on January 27, 2012 at 10:08pm

It is absolutely essential that we consider how the operational costs would be paid for. The biggest cost of a municipal Wi-Fi system is not the capital costs of the hardware (wireless access points and fiber optics that provide the backhaul to the access points), nor would it be ongoing maintenance of the hardware. The greatest cost would be the ongoing operational costs of the "bandwidth"-- the capacity of the data service. Earlier minutes show that Frontier estimates that the monthly operation costs of Wi-Fi in SW Rochester would be about $55,000 per month.

While a "free" Wi-Fi would be beneficial to the neighborhood, so would "free" electricity. Electric service is a good analogy, as data service is essentially a modern utility, and the greatest cost of supplying electric utility to homes is not the costs of the wires and poles, but rather the operational costs of producing the electricity itself.

The problem is that nothing that costs money to produce can truly be "free." Somebody has to pay for it. Who would pay for the costs of providing municipal Wi-Fi? If we were able to find a funding source on this scale, would that funding be better applied toward other unmet community needs such as housing rehabilitation, schools, or recreation?

Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on January 27, 2012 at 11:28pm

Excellent point, DeWain. I assume people are thinking some combination of grants, City, provider, and maybe U of R monies will pay for this. Unknown. It is worth investigating, but over the years, that certainly adds up.

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