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NYC: Leverage Fiber, Offer Free Wi-Fi
gpmap writes "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. In addition, it suggested using the fiber to deploy free Internet access with a Wi-Fi Network in Brooklyn's Prospect Park."
Let's say free access happens. What happens when people start using it (in mass) to conduct fraud, send death threats to the President, start a boutique email spam business, etc.
One more thing: This group has lobbied several Congressional principals; Joe Lieberman - D-CT, Barbara Boxer - D-CA; George Allen - R-GA, and John McCain - R-AZ. Many senior staffers have been very impressed with this model.
One example:
Consider that a community could put into play a wireless network that taps into already-existing backbone fiber.
Newer technologies from companies like Vivato, Proxim and Motorola[Canopy] (with more on the way) would permit universal broadband (with no truck rolls!) within a very short time.
The city would be able to employ local IT skill, take a portion (80%) of the subscriber profits, and roll that revenue over to finish out fiber deployment (if they decided that this was a prudent thing to do).
The TeloPhase model makes more semse than anything I've seen, as a hopeful model for the *fast* deployment of universal municipal broadband.
Billly Gates writes: "Verizon will be extremely pissed about this. They will throw everything they have to prevent it. Maybe even sue as well as continue the usual heavy lobbing the baby bells are known for."
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You're right. And that's where 'political will' comes in. Politicians, municipal leaders, and the Congress would have to be willing to stand up and recognize that there is a clear value in giving municipalities the right to operate their own networks. There are clear precedents for this with municipally-run utilities. Structurally, this is a no-brianer.
A clear case that can be made for citizens 'owning' the 'communicative assets' that they represent. Why shouldn't citizens, and the communities that represent them, decide where the profits from the use of their 'communicative assets' (represented as communicative capital) go?
This is a basic question, and it will have a signifiacant impact on whether America ever experiences optimal efficiencies and economies form universal broadband.
As of today, universal, affordable, broadband deployment has been mostly *constrained* by the major telecommunications groups. That's something to consider, and do something about.
It comes down to who owns your capacity to communicate.
"Free" doesn't have to mean anonymous;
Absolutely true. That's the most convenient model -- you walk in the park, you're assigned an IP via DHCP, presto -- but that doesn't have to be the way it is. You may have to signup, just like I did for my local library. And that's OK with me.
Something else: the terms of service can also be enforced technically -- that is, what you're free to do can be constrained. You could throttle port 25 for each computer, for example, or watch for certain traffic patterns that suggest a kind of attack...
Tweet, tweet.
We could lobby the New York State to implement Internet repeaters that are strictly based on longitude and latitude. Most repeaters need some sort of Internet Protocol address as assignable by the I.A.N.A. organization. The longitude and latitude designation would deploy an independant solution. Any New Yorker could localize there connection without signage to commerical Internet Service Provider if logitude and latitude were is use as the address that wiresless devices use within its headers. [I won't bore you with the details.]
We need to re-establish the non-commerical Internet carriers; the "last mile" is the place. Lets not re-learn the same old lesson, as we did with cable systems that say they own equipment that we more than completely bought.