Update on collaboration with others interested in Wi-Fi

After our presentation at the July County Legislature Open Forum I received a call from Ed Omiccioli, Supervisor, IT Governance and Strategic Projects at Rochester City School District who has been looking at ways to connect schools with their students and who faces a lot of the same challenges that we are looking at. As is the case with our Wi-Fi initiative, the big concern the District has for Wi-Fi is the support cost and Wi-Fi's ability to penetrate houses and environmental factors such as leaves or snow on trees.

Ed shared a number of links with us:

* NYCwireless provides wireless in outdoor area such as parks and other public places.

http://nycwireless.net/

* Ponca City, OK – The city work with Honeywell to implement their wireless

http://www.poncacityok.gov/index.aspx?NID=417

* The Raleigh Connected Initiative is probably one of the best examples of community wireless. Take a look at their Digital Connectors program

http://www.raleighnc.gov/home/content/ITechAdmin/Articles/Raleighco...

* Binghamton’s WiFi – They sell advertising to pay the monthly recurring cost and ads are only shown on the home page.

http://www.cityofbinghamton.com/department.asp?zone=dept-economic-d...

* You may be aware of NYC looking to convert payphones into free WiFi hotspots

http://www.techspot.com/news/49362-nyc-unveils-trial-to-turn-paypho...

Today I received another excellent reference from Ed on a Chicago Wi-Fi initiative. It is a wonderful overview of all the issues we need to consider:

Community Wireless Networks : WCN-AllReports.pdf

A report on the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s project to bring
community wireless access to three Illinois communities.

This report is very readable and covers a lot of the social issue that are involved.

We need to reach out to other educational institutions to look at their needs in the SW area and see what the collaboration options are for the pilot project we are investigating.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on August 5, 2012 at 9:58pm

It is necessary to be clear that the ongoing monthly costs of a WiFi service are not "maintenance" or "support" costs. The ongoing costs are the bulk of the cost of providing a WiFi service, and those costs exceed the initial capital costs. The ongoing costs for WiFi pay for all of the infrastructure (the vast network of routers, switches, servers and fiber optic cables) that bring the bandwidth to the WiFi antenna.

An analogy can be made to providing "free" electricity by providing outlets on public buildings. The greatest cost in providing electricity is not the outlet, it is the network of power plants, transmission lines, transformers and distribution lines that bring the electricity to the outlet.

Permalink Reply by Mark Sweetland on August 6, 2012 at 1:48am

DeWain, Having worked for RGE for a bit, I understand and think we are talking about millions of dollars over the long run. I do understand also the value of this service and why people would like it --- and if they can find funding, more power to them.

Permalink Reply by John Boutet on August 8, 2012 at 3:33am

Be sure to check out the Raleigh Beehive. Raleigh providing wireless access to nearly 2,000 households in low-income communities the city.

The City of Raleigh understands that mere access to technology is not sufficient. In addition to digital literacy training, the City of Raleigh sponsors the Raleigh Beehive--a self-help website providing reliable information and easy-to-use tools. The Raleigh Beehive features relevant local resources and information about finance, health, housing, schools and jobs.

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