Wi-fi signals wireless Internet revolution

By Charles Taylor
Senior Staff Writer

Wireless Internet is on the move in urban, rural and suburban counties across the nation, and nowhere more literally than in King County (Seattle), Wash., where 29 Metro transit buses have been equipped with wi-fi access.

"We are in a very high-tech community," said King County Executive Ron Sims, whose county is home to Microsoft and Amazon.com. "Our sense was that there was no reason for us not to have buses that reflect the community that we’re in."

Demand for the service has been so high that it’s strained the network. "We knew it would be popular," Sims explained. "We now have a challenge of trying to meet the demand, which is an exciting position to be in."

Short for wireless fidelity, wi-fi is a local area network (LAN) that communicates via radio waves instead of wires. From Oregon to Arizona, Florida to Wyoming, counties are climbing on the wi-fi bandwagon - partly because wireless technology has made it easier to do, said Christopher Baum, an e-government expert with Gartner, a provider of research and analysis about the information technology industry.

"There’s a very good social payback for it," said Baum, who has advised a number of local governments. "About half of the homes in the country are online one way or another, but it tends to be the people who have higher income. So how do you serve the group of people that don’t have that income? We’ve got to solve the access problem. And the counties and cities that are providing access are often doing it for that reason."

Another reason is economic competitiveness, Baum added: "You need to have an educated workforce; you need to have a supporting infrastructure - which is the other big driver behind this - in order to spur private-sector development."

Phil Bertonini, Oakland County, Mich.’s deputy executive and chief information officer (CIO), agreed: "Manufacturing jobs have been going away by the thousands in the last couple of years," he said. "So there’s a lot of workers out there who were making a darn good living in the factory that now need to enhance their technical skills.

"We believe there’s a great workforce development issue here. And there’s also the economic development, as we attract high-tech businesses from the new sectors around the world."

The business models vary from locality to locality; some counties are working in partnership with the private sector, others are deploying wi-fi zones - or hotspots - as purely local government projects. In some parts of the country, the latter approach has run into opposition from telecommunications and cable providers alleging unfair competition.

A number of bills - pro and con - currently are making their way through Congress to address the issues. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has introduced The Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act, S. 1504. It would preempt local governments from offering broadband services to citizens, unless they first asked a private provider for permission. Existing municipal projects would be grandfathered, but would not be able to expand services.

On the plus side for local governments, last year, Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced S. 1294, the Community Broadband Act of 2005. It would specifically permit municipalities to offer low-cost broadband service. If the bill passes, it would overturn all state legislation prohibiting municipal broadband systems.

In Michigan, the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC), working with several counties Ñ including Oakland Ñ was successful in getting the state’s Telecommunications Act amended to make it easier for local units of government to offer telecom services. Currently, at least 14 states are considering bills that would limit the ability of localities to offer broadband.

Wireless signals to blanket Oakland County, Mich.

One of the most ambitions projects in the nation is Oakland County’s Wireless Oakland, where the Michigan county is working with a private company to blanket the county’s 910 square miles with free wireless Internet, reaching 1.2 million people. Fifteen blocks of the city of Pontiac are already up and running; the goal is to have the entire county completed by the end of 2007.

It’s part of a broader initiative, said county CIO Bertolini, and the brainchild of County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. Wireless Oakland’s three-pronged goal is to:

• deploy free wi-fi
• close the county’s digital divide by providing free and low-cost computers to low-income and older residents, and
• create a technology toolkit for the county’s 62 cities, villages and towns that provides model ordinances and other templates they can use to embrace technology.

For its wi-fi network, Oakland has contracted with MichTel Communications to build and operate the system.

"We do not want to own, operate or maintain this," Bertolini said. "And we also don’t want to pay for it. What we want to do, though, is leverage all the assets that governments own in this county and provide them free of charge to the private sector Ñ so towers, light poles, siren poles - everything we own is going to be free of charge to the provider." The county’s premise is that residents have invested in the infrastructure as taxpayers and will now reap the dividend of free Internet access.

Wireless Oakland will "give away" 128-kilobit-per-second access for free (about three times the speed dial-up modems actually deliver), "and then the higher bandwidth services can be sold by MichTel," Bertolini added.

For communities interested in adopting Oakland’s model, Bertolini is also giving away the store, so to speak. "That’s why we put up our Web site (www.wirelessoakland.org); we’re giving away our RFQ and everything. We just put it all out there," he explained, "because we believe we have a business model that’s workable.

"We see the Internet as a ‘have to have, not a nice to have’ any longer. So I believe the business model can be replicated; there are a number of areas that are starting similar projects."

Arlington County, Va. is following a similar strategy, according to CIO Jack Belcher, in terms of working with the private sector. The county - a compact, urban enclave of 26 square miles, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. - initially plans to make free wi-fi available in its public parks, community centers and around county government buildings. It already provides free wi-fi access near its main government center and central public library.

"We really do not want to create a traditional community wireless in terms of a government-sponsored initiative," Belcher said. "Given the demographics of the community - young, mobile people who want to have anytime, anywhere access to the Internet - we’re trying to encourage [the private sector] to come in and do it and we’re going to act as sort of a facilitator."

Broward wires Fort Lauderdale’s ‘downtown campus’

Broward County (pop. 1.6 million) has created a more traditional community wireless zone - designing and installing its own "governmental-university campus" wi-fi area, said Leslie Stout, assistant to Broward’s CIO. It’s a joint venture involving the county’s Office of Information Technology, Traffic Engineering and its Facilities Management Division.

Fort Lauderdale’s wi-fi web covers a high-density area that includes two colleges, the main governmental campus and the city’s main downtown library. The cost to the county: $79,000 for start-up and $100 per month in recurring costs.

"We’re getting our feet wet in this area," Stout said. If the County Commission decides to expand coverage, it might consider working with the private sector, she added.

Whether motivated by enterprise or altruism, counties are proving there’s more than one way ride the wireless wave.

Oakland County’s Bertolini has been asked, "What made us so good-natured that we wanted to provide this service? Its time has come and we need to get involved," he answered.