Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Massachusetts Turnpike Authority- Flips The Script On Nextel and Makes THEM PAY!

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 17:13:49 -0400

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority- Flips The Script On Nextel and Makes
THEM PAY! Ha-Ha-Ha!

"Hello Timmy, Timmy Can You Hear Me?"

"Im In The Blah-Blah-Gobble, Gooble"
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Cellphone pact stalls in tunnel
By Scott Kirsner, 4/28/2003

The official name for the new highway underneath Boston may be the Liberty Tunnel, but I've been
calling it by a different name: the Chasm of the Dropped Calls. As soon as you cruise through the
portal to our new $14 billion basement, your cellphone signal fades and then disappears entirely. The
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority originally expected wireless service in the tunnel to be online by this
summer or early fall, but we could wind up waiting longer as the major wireless carriers haggle with the
Turnpike Authority over how much they will pay for the privilege of putting antennas inside the I-93 and
I-90 tunnels.

Here's where the negotiations stand: The six major wireless carriers (Nextel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile,
Verizon, and Cingular) feel like the Turnpike Authority is trying to shake them down, charging fees that
are more than double what they paid to gain access to the Ted Williams Tunnel.

The Turnpike Authority wants a $100,000 nonrefundable application fee from each carrier and a
$500,000 application review fee from the group of six. Add to that $500,000 a year in lease fees from
each carrier that eventually provides service in the I-93 and I-90 tunnels -- not to mention the $10 million
cost of installing the distributed antenna system, which the carriers would share.
''What they've requested is without a comparable in the US,'' says J. Gregory Higgins, an attorney for
Nextel who is the carriers' lead negotiator. He says the deal would set a price record if the carriers signed
it today without any further negotiation.

Sean O'Neill, a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, says the lease fees for the new tunnels can't be
compared to other tunnels that already have service, like the Ted Williams or Callahan.
''You're not comparing apples to apples,'' he says. ''The traffic and utilization of the I-93 and I-90
[tunnels] is much greater.'' Besides, he adds, ''the taxpayers -- our customers -- deserve the best return
that we can get.''

Problem is, the financially strapped Turnpike Authority wants to wring as much revenue as it can from the
financially strapped wireless carriers at a moment when the carriers are earning less and less money for
every minute customers spend on their cellphones, thanks to price wars.
''Carriers have gotten more sensitive about what they pay for antenna sites,'' says Phil Marshall, an
industry analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston. ''They have to prioritize the dead spots, and really
scrutinize the cost of each specific site.''

The wireless industry was ''in the toilet a year ago,'' acknowledges Higgins.
''We're not out of the woods yet, and the economy isn't helping,'' he says. ''Still, we're willing to go
forward and pursue this project despite that.''

But Nextel and the other carriers say they're unwilling to pay a price they can't earn back. And they'll
earn it back by selling you minutes while you zip around underground.
Two things happen next.

First, the carriers want to scrutinize the design and costs of the $10 million antenna system that they'll
jointly use, and pay for, to provide service to the tunnels. Some of that will happen in a meeting this
afternoon at the offices of Maverick Construction in Hyde Park. Maverick is the vendor selected by the
Turnpike Authority to install the antenna system -- though that deal is not yet final.
Second, the carriers will respond to the Turnpike Authority's opening price on lease fees by May 30.
(This date has been pushed back twice.) After May 30, formal negotiations will begin.
''I think we'll come to a deal very quickly,'' says Higgins. But Maverick won't begin to install its system
until those negotiations are complete.

The worst-case scenario would be similar to what happened last year with cell service on the T: The
MBTA and carriers never came to an accord on lease fees and the overall cost of installing the system,
and that's why you can't check your voicemail while you're waiting for the Green Line at Park Street.
But that's not a scenario likely to happen in the I-90 and I-93 tunnels.
''It's our highest priority in terms of [antenna placement] right now, for obvious reasons,'' says Marty
Nee, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless. ''Customers do expect service, and we intend to provide it as
soon as humanly possible.''

When will that be? Nee says that late summer or early fall ''would be a very aggressive time frame.''
Richard Enright, director of engineering for Verizon Wireless in New England, says that ''it's a possibility
there will be some additional delay,'' but notes that the system can be installed without shutting down the
tunnels -- a good thing. O'Neill of the Turnpike Authority and Michael McNally, the president of Maverick, believe service could be available this summer or fall.
Higgins, though, says, ''We're working around the biggest public works project in US history. If things
went well and we came to closure on the business deal quickly, we'd see installations begin around the
first of the year.''

What's your prediction? Drop me an e-mail at the address below.
And until then, get used to saying, ''I'll call you back when I hit the Zakim Bridge.''
Tech meets art Four local innovators are exploring the intersection between technology and art, with exhibits in Boston
and New York.

Nita Sturiale, co-founder of the Cambridge start-up SmartWorlds, has created a piece called ''Invisible
Ideas'' as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival.

Viewers (users?) are given a PocketPC hand-held computer equipped with a Global Positioning System
receiver. As they roam Commonwealth Avenue, the Public Garden, and Boston Common, their position
triggers different visual and audio content on the hand-held. When the viewer returns to the gallery, a
tracing of her travels is uploaded to a map, which also shows the paths taken by other viewers.
''Invisible Ideas'' will be at the Copley Society of Art on Newbury Street through May 10. There's a
gallery talk about the project with Sturiale on May 3 at 10 a.m. More information is available at www.invisibleideas.org.
In New York, as part of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's National Design Triennial, three technologists
with MIT connections have work on display. Cynthia Breazeal, a professor at the Media Lab who heads
the Robotic Life Group, designed a set of robotic flowers that move in response to the viewer's presence.
Also on display is Electric Plaid, a textile developed by Media Lab alumnae Maggie Orth and Joanna
Berzowska, co-founders of the Cambridge start-up International Fashion Machines. Orth says Electric
Plaid is the world's first programmable, color-shifting fabric.

Sadly, electric plaid neckties are not yet for sale in the museum's gift shop.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/118/business/Cellphone_pact_stalls_in_tunnel+.shtml

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