Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless Providers to Light Up New York

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 10:06:35 -0400

Wireless Providers to Light Up New York

Mon Aug 2,10:01 AM ET   

Six wireless providers are set to begin installing equipment for 
cellar networks, Wi-Fi and Internet telephony in New York City 
street lamps, traffic lights and other prime real estate this summer 
under a plan expected to net the city more than $20 million a year, 
city officials said last week. 

T-Mobile USA Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc. are the largest 
companies taking part in the scheme, originally discussed in 
February, with Nextel planning to install repeaters capable of 
carrying any type of wireless service. IDT Business Services LLC is 
to provide low-income homes with Internet telephony services and 
equipment, while ClearLinx Network Corp., Crown Castle Solutions 
Inc. and Dianet Communications LLC will offer the light pole real 
estate to other carriers. 

The use of street lights, street signs and traffic lights could 
change the way users access wireless services. Currently cellular 
service providers and wireless ISPs must build powerful base 
stations on private property, leaving gaps in service, while 
wireless LAN hot spots are limited to specific locations such as 
airport lounges and coffee shops. Under the city's plan, access 
points would be more numerous and would therefore need less power. 

In addition, because each pole can only accommodate a single base 
station, providers such as Nextel are installing equipment designed 
to support multiple cellular services as well as emerging 
technologies such as WiMax. This, the city hopes, will mean an end 
to the use of larger, competing base stations. 

Despite such assurances, however, the plan has already riled some 
public figures, who fear that the unchecked proliferation of 
wireless base stations will lead to unforeseen health side 
effects. "They keep saying that these things are less dangerous than 
microwave ovens, but no one has a microwave running 24/7, right next 
to their bedroom window," Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. of Queens 
told the New York Times on Friday. 

The poles are divided into three categories: Zone A includes 
Manhattan south of 96th Street; Zone B is citywide, excluding the 
areas covered by Zones A and C; and Zone C includes districts in 
which at least 5 percent of housing units do not have telephone 
service. Franchisees operating only in Zone C will pay $10,000 a 
year, rising to $50,000 for Zone C and Zone B, or $100,000 a year in 
all zones. 

Each franchisee can rent up to 3,000 poles for as long as 15 years, 
and the city is making 18,000 locations available for rent. Rentals 
of 14,000 locations would bring in $21,219,720 annually, the city 
estimates. 

Antennas and repeaters are designed to be as unnoticeable from the 
ground as possible, with a ban on logos and signage visible from the 
street. The devices will link up to power and fiber-optic cabling 
under the street. 

Metricom Inc. provided wireless data service via New York City's 
light poles from the late 1990s until 2001, when it filed for 
bankruptcy. Metricom was the initial owner of struggling wireless 
data pioneer Ricochet Networks Inc., recently acquired by YDI 
Wireless Inc. The plan is also similar to a U.K. scheme to blanket 
the country with broadband wireless access via upgrades to the 
country's roadside telematics equipment. 

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1630362,00.asp

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