Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 80211 Planet - "NYC: Leverage Fiber, Offer Free Wi-Fi "

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 13:33:19 -0400

Dat-A-Boy! AT

-------- Original Message --------
From: Anthony Townsend <[email-masked]>
Subject:80211 Planet - "NYC: Leverage Fiber, Offer Free Wi-Fi "

Proof that NYCwireless' advocacy efforts pay off!

The report, entitled "Network NYC: Building the Broadband City," is
available at http://www.council.nyc.ny.us/index.cfm?page=reports

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NYC: Leverage Fiber, Offer Free Wi-Fi
By   Erin  Joyce

A new study from the New York City Council is recommending that the Big 
Apple throw open the competitive bidding process for its annual $130 
million phone and Internet bill in order to leverage one of the most 
expansive -- and underused -- fiber optic networks in the country.

In so doing, New York City could not only cut its annual telecom bill, 
but would also be in a position to deploy wireless networking links as 
the "last mile" connecting metropolitan area networks, or MANs 
(define). In addition, it suggested using the fiber to deploy free 
Internet access with a Wi-Fi (define) Network in Brooklyn's Prospect 
Park.

Prepared by Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Councilman Gale Brewer, 
who chairs the council's select committee on technology in government, 
the report is entitled "Network NYC: Building the Broadband City."

With the rapidly unfolding maturation of wireless and fiber optic 
technologies, along with a glut of fiber optics lines left over from 
the telecom bubble, the use of network pricing that can reduce current 
and future telecom costs is expanding, the report said.

The 22-page study, released Thursday, recommends that the Mayor's 
office competitively bid "the city's $130 million annual phone and 
Internet bill -- 75 percent of which has been historically provided as 
a sole source contract to Verizon."

Verizon has held the annual contract for decades, according to a city 
official.

The report suggested the move would help address the city's ongoing 
fiscal crisis, which was already reeling from a recession before Sept. 
11.

"Without competition, and with Verizon's lock on 75 percent of the 
City's telecom bill, the Comptroller's Office repeatedly has asked a 
basic question: how can New York City be assured that it is getting the 
best telecom rates and services if it is not soliciting multiple bids 
in a rigorous, open market process?"

A Verizon spokesman was not available for comment by presstime.

New York City is the largest municipal buyer of telecommunications 
goods and services in the U.S., said the report. In addition, it said 
the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) 
manages franchise agreements for 21 separate fiber-optic companies -- 
more companies holding more high capacity metropolitan fiber than in 
any other city, as well as a portfolio of over 2,220 municipal rooftops 
potentially ripe for wireless deployments.

Yet "there has been little public discussion or long term strategic 
thinking about how the city could better organize this public and 
private infrastructure to encourage a truly citywide deployment of 
affordable, high speed networking capacity," the report said.

It also criticized the lack of coordination among so many fiber-rich 
departments within the city. Locally, for example, New York City 
already essentially owns, operates and manages, an albeit limited fiber 
network known as the Institutional Network, or I-Net.

In addition, "and as a further indication of the lack of coordinated 
telecom planning in the City, several [city] agencies, DOT, and the New 
York Public Library (NYPL), operate their own separate fiber networks 
for transmitting large amounts of data and/or as backhaul networks for 
Internet traffic."

It also cited an example of neighborhoods with several bandwidth-rich 
municipal buildings clustered nearby. Typically, the firehouses, police 
precincts, library branches and other government offices are all 
connected separately via the telephone companies' network, with 
multiple T-1 lines, "that cost anywhere between $400 and $1,200 each."

Instead, the report suggested, with "secure, point to multi-point 
wireless last mile or last hundred feet links, however, the tallest 
municipal building in a given area can distribute bandwidth wirelessly 
to all the various municipal sites off of the one building's fiber 
backbone." In effect, the building itself would become a Point of 
Presence (define) located on a fiber metropolitan area network.

Other suggestions in the report said that excess fiber capacity built 
as a consequence of city funding should be open to third parties at 
competitive wholesale rates.

The report also suggested that the DoITT issue a five year telecom plan 
every three years; that the DoITT should look over all of the city's 
telecom needs, including pre existing fiber and wireless resources and 
that it appoint a blue ribbon panel of academics, technicians, and 
community members to develop a comprehensive feasibility study for a 
redesigned municipal network.

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