Going Wireless
By Andrew Tobias |
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Columbus has asked (pretty pretty please) the Feds for $37.9 million to lay the broadband groundwork for a network that could eventually support a citywide Wi-Fi system.
The money would be coming from a $7.2 billion pot of stimulus money set aside to help bring more widespread broadband connectivity to the nation.
City officials say a Wi-Fi network would let them send video feed from surveillance cameras directly to police cruisers, read water and gas meters wirelessly, and generally help the government operate cheaper and more efficiently. The city could also use an underground fiber-optic cable system which would provide bandwidth to the network and offer it up as a means of enticing new businesses (and high-tech jobs) to the area.
All of which sounds great, but, indirect benefits notwithstanding, would the general public get to use it? If so, would it be free? And, if not, how much would it cost?
This is not so clear. In an interview with 614, Columbus City Councilman A. Troy Miller extolled the benefits of the fiber-optic network and Wi-Fi. When we asked him how the Wi-Fi system would be structured, he said Columbus would not administer it, but would rather lease it out to a third-party company for administration and management.
This could be similar to wireless networks in Dublin and Gahanna. In those cases, the cities split costs with Dublin-based DHB Networks to install Wi-Fi transmitters and hooked them up to the cities' pre-existing fiber networks. Gahanna's citywide Wi-Fi network went live earlier this year and Dublin's will be ready in a few months.
In both cases, Wi-Fi access is available to residents for a $24.95 monthly subscription fee, officials said. The cities also use their networks for government Internet access and phones, and to monitor water and gas meters.
We asked these questions, but didn't get direct answers. So we sent a follow-up e-mail: would Columbus' hypothetical network be like Dublin and Gahanna? Or would it be more like Akron, which has set up a completely free Wi-Fi hotspot in its downtown thanks to an influx of private cash?
The city would also need to provide a 20 percent match for the Federal money, or $7.4 million, but it is unclear where that money would come from.
A business model has not yet been set up, Miller replied.
"These are good and valid questions, which me and [City information director] Gary Cavin have discussed and have yet to finalize the answers," he said in an e-mail. "We are certainly going to review other citywide Wi-Fi examples and learn from their success and failures."
Details would be worked out in the coming weeks, he said.
In the meantime, Columbus' technology department has compiled the grant application to meet a mid-August deadline and will now wait patiently until November to hear back, Miller said.
What is clear, Miller said, is that this stimulus grant represents a great opportunity.
Receiving the grant could jump-start a process that would otherwise take much longer, especially considering the City's projected budget gap. The project could be ready to go within a year if Columbus gets the money.
"By us going for this $37.9 million, we save ourselves probably six years waiting for this to happen," Miller said.
But Columbus will have plenty of competition to get the money, even locally.
Dave Sweet, a spokesman for nonprofit (but government-affiliated) ConnectOhio, said Columbus was just one of dozens of municipalities in Ohio looking to get a piece of the stimulus pie.
ConnectOhio has aided individual communities in their bids for Federal dollars by breaking down broadband Internet access by individual census blocks.
"We're up to our eyeballs in stimulus applications," Sweet said.
In Central Ohio, there are a number of other municipalities who are vying for the money as well, including Franklin County, Grove City, and Westerville, said Brad Cavner with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
California blogger Esme Vos, who runs www.muniwireless.com, said Columbus and other municipalities are interested in getting into the Internet business for a number of reasons.
First off, there's nothing like cold hard cash to get public employees' blood pumping, said Vos.
Most cities and counties across the country are hard up for money because of declining tax revenues, she said. The money helps them pay for pre-existing projects. Simple enough.
And then in large cities, there's an increased demand for cellular bandwidth as people buy iPhones, BlackBerries, Palm Pilots, and other 'smart phones,' which tax the bandwidth currently provided by cell towers. Remember trying to call a friend at Comfest only to get a CONNECTION ERROR message, thanks to hundreds of people updating their Facebook statuses while downloading the latest tracks from the Ting Tings?
"People are so plugged in and 'a-twitter' all the time, uploading and downloading stuff," Vos said. "It's a disaster."
Installing sturdy wireless networks can help take the strain off cell towers. Plus, the subterranean fiber optic wires are more aesthetically pleasing than a 200-foot cellular tower.
On the other hand, the companies that actually install and administer the fiber and Wi-Fi networks benefit because subsidized governments rates can undercut companies like AT&T and Time Warner, which control privately owned fiber-optic cable.
However, about three-fourths of the first round of stimulus broadband money to be doled out in November is earmarked for rural communities. So what are Columbus's chances on getting some of that action?
Not good, Vos said.
When you read the rules for the first round, the Feds offers definitions of what the qualifiers "unserved" (remote, unconnected rural areas) and "underserved" (less than half of the people have broadband access, among other factors) mean, in terms of getting the grant.
"Unless you're telling me the entire city of Columbus is underserved, I don't think they're going to get that grant," Vos said.
Sweet called Columbus's plan "ambitious," but he agrees the city will have to demonstrate that its citizenry is underserved when it comes to broadband access.
"Certainly there are neighborhoods that are very poor," he said. "They are the people who are going to be underserved."
Regardless, there are two more rounds of funding where the rules could change. Even if they don't fit the criteria exactly, municipalities will often apply anyway, in hopes that they might meet future standards, Vos said. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again, basically.
For his part, Miller said his understanding is that Columbus fits the majority of criteria for the funding and has a "great chance" of getting the money.
But, he conceded, there's always the second round.
Originally Published: September 1, 2009
