Land of the cable free

Fegwu · Oct 10, 2005

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The creation of blanket wireless internet access in Philadelphia has other cities and businesses watching closely, writes David Teather

New York dispatch
Friday October 7, 2005

Philadelphia is one of the oldest and most historic cities in America. It could also soon be one of the most futuristic.

Officials this week signed an agreement with Earthlink to build a municipal high-speed wireless internet network that would blanket the city. The service, expected to go live at the end of next year, would be the first of its kind in the United States.

The plan is to make the service available for $20 (£11) a month to users, or $10 a month for people on low incomes - an effort to lessen the impact of the digital divide. In certain areas, like parks and other public spaces, the service would be free.

But the prospect of making the internet more widely available in a city that was the birthplace of American democracy is not pleasing everyone.

The telephone and cable companies that have spent billions of dollars upgrading their networks for broadband are crying foul, fearful that their businesses could take a substantial hit. Cable companies currently charge around $45 a month for high-speed access. Verizon Wireless, the mobile phone firm, charges users around $60 a month.

The proposals are not limited to Philadelphia. Other cities are watching closely with the hope of replicating the idea.

Earthlink will finance the building and maintenance of the Philadelphia network, at an initial cost of between $10m and $15m. Shoebox-sized Wi-Fi equipment will be fixed to some 3,000 of the city's street lampposts, covering an area of 135 square miles and 1.5 million people.

Earthlink plans to offer speeds of one megabit per second, slower than cable but around 20 times faster than dial-up. It would share future revenues with Wireless Philadelphia, the city-backed non-profit group behind the scheme, funding plans to put computers in low-income homes. Officials also hope to improve communications with city workers like firefighters and police.

"Our goal is to ensure that all neighborhoods, regardless of economic status, have access to high-speed wireless," said Dianah Neff, the city's chief information officer.

Philadelphia officials also hope the scheme will make the city more business-friendly. Tourists or business travellers will be able to use the service as needed, paying for access hourly, daily or weekly.

Wireless Philadelphia estimates that 85,000 of the 174,000 dial-up households in the city will sign up within the first year.

The network will provide open access to competing providers. Still, for Earthlink, the agreement could prove pivotal in building a new broadband customer base. The vast majority of the internet service provider's 5.4m customers are currently dial-up subscribers, a market that is rapidly shrinking.

Philadelphia, which first announced plans to build the network last August, is the furthest along but others are close behind. Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, Minneapolis, and Madison, Wisconsin are all currently talking to potential network suppliers.

San Francisco this week accepted bids from 24 companies hoping to win the contract to manage a wireless network for the internet's first city. Mayor Gavin Newsom recently said that cheap or free high-speed internet access was a "fundamental right".

The bid attracted interest from the likes of Earthlink and mobile phone companies like Cingular Wireless and Motorola. The most publicity though was stirred by Google, which put in a last minute bid, offering to build and maintain a network offering entirely free access throughout the city. It would likely be financed by advertising - perhaps tailored to wherever a user is in the city. Google earlier this year unveiled its personalised home page, the beginnings of a portal to rival Yahoo or MSN, and that could also be in the back of the company's mind.

Mr Newsom said he expected some tough opposition to his plan for San Francisco. "Private industry is very concerned about this," he said in a press conference.

The cable and telephone companies suggest they can defend their markets with higher speeds and unique content. Behind the scenes though they have been lobbying against the use of public funds to build networks, arguing that municipal schemes discourage private investment. Certainly Google presents the biggest threat to traditional providers. The company has said it has no plans to offer a similar service outside of San Francisco. If it changes its mind then it could have a profound impact on the way the internet is accessed in the US.
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Where is Houston in all of this progress and fun? Hmmmmm.....

And I was thinking of investing into the dial-up business about a year ago.

A-Train · Oct 10, 2005

Yeah, I can see all those routers getting vandalized and trashed by cable internet goons in about a month...

BiGGieStuFF · Oct 10, 2005

Hasn't NYC already implemented this? I hear it's not blazingly fast but it's still faster than dial-up.

thadeus · Oct 10, 2005

This is awesome!

Davidoff · Oct 10, 2005

Gotta love all this competition, it will help lower prices across the board... now if it would only happen here in Houston..

micah1j · Oct 10, 2005

It sounds like a great idea but as with everything the government does I suspect the service might be spotty. People might be signing up for the non-govt service to get faster more reliable service.

Dr of Dunk · Oct 10, 2005

Google is trying to offer access to cities. That should be interesting to watch.

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