Entries from Earthling - EarthLink blog tagged with 'Municipal Wi-Fi'
Clarifying EarthLink Municipal Wi-Fi Plans
I've seen a few articles online this morning suggesting that EarthLink is getting out of the municipal Wi-Fi business. This is not the case. After checking with our leadership this morning, I want to confirm two points:
BlogPhilly Bound
I'm headed out to BlogPhiladelphia this afternoon. I'm no stranger to the allure of the Cheesesteak, but this will be my first time in Philly since our Municipal Wi-Fi network buildout began. I 'm looking forward to meeting lots of Philly bloggers including BlogPhiladelphia's intrepid organizer, Annie Heckenberger.
Arlington VA Chooses EarthLink for Wi-Fi Network -- Now With Short Form
This morning EarthLink is pleased to announce that Arlington County, VA, has selected us to build, own, and operate their 26 square-mile Wi-Fi network. There's more information in the press release, and less information in our new EarthLink Twitter presence, ELNK.
Steps In The Municipal Wi-Fi Process
Last week the cities of Houston, TX and St. Petersburg, FL chose EarthLink to build and operate Municipal Wi-Fi networks in those cities. Before I started working with our Muni Wi-Fi folks I had no idea how something like this comes about or what it means when a city "selects" a partner, so here's a run-down of the major milestones in the development of our Municipal Wi-Fi networks. In practice it works a little differently in each city, but here’s the general shape of the process:
Come Support Muni Wi-Fi In SF
Lil Mike at Metroblogging SF reports that the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco will be holding a hearing about municipal Wi-Fi today, February 7th at City Hall, Board Chamber, room 250, Budget and Finance Committee. At the time of my writing this, the start time appears to be between 1:30 and 2 pm, but I've also seen reports of it starting as early as 1:30. Best to get there early if you want to catch the start of the conversation. The committee meeting itself begins at 1pm. [found via Jesse at The Urban Commons]
Frenchulettas, The Magazine Canyon, and Wi-Fi
Liuzza's on Bienville was packed when Ken and I got there on Friday night. We had chosen Liuzza's for a number of reasons, not the least of which was my having never experienced the Frenchuletta, which is a Muffaletta-ish sandwich served on a huge piece of french bread. It was interesting to see what it was like on a Friday night at a neighborhood restaurant in a part of town still very much in the thick of coming back to life. It was packed, loud, and full of good cheer. When we got there, both rooms were completely full and we ended up waiting outside with our beverages for our guests to arrive.
Atlanta Chooses EarthLink For City Wi-Fi
As both a resident of Atlanta and an employee of EarthLink, I'm excited to announce that we've been chosen to build, own, and operate the City's new municipal Wi-Fi network. The network will be similar in model to what we're building in other cities, including retail residential 1 Mbps up/down service, open access for competing providers to sell over our network, small business support with T-1 replacement services, and programs to help bridge the digital divide. There's more information about the city's RFP process on the Wireless Atlanta section of AtlantaGA.gov.
Liuzza's On Bienville On Friday
Ken Womack from the Search team and myself will be heading down to New Orleans for a couple of days. Ken's doing some research around the local search and portal services in our Municipal Wi-Fi markets. I'm going to help plan some future EarthLink Wi-Fi events, reconnect with friends and colleagues, and hopefully meet some new ones as well. We'll be grabbing dinner at Liuzza's on Bienville on Friday night at 7 p.m. along with whichever bloggers and geeks can make it on the short notice. Feel free to stop by and say hello.
EarthLink And SF Agree To Terms
“Today, EarthLink and the City of San Francisco reached agreement on the terms of the contract to build a citywide wireless network.
New Orleans Wi-Fi Network Launches
It's been a big week for EarthLink Wi-Fi -- on Tuesday we announced the launch of our network in Milpitas, CA and today we're officially unveiling our New Orleans network.
Wi-Fi Launch And 30 Days Free In Milpitas
Today we proudly launched our Wi-Fi network in the city of Milpitas, CA.
The Wi-Fi Signal Grinch
ArsTechnica's Jeremy Reimer pointed out a new survey by a company called AirMagnet claiming that traditional Christmas decorations like tinsel, boughs of holly, and fa la las interfere with indoor Wi-Fi network signals. Reimer smelled a stunt here: "AirMagnet's ploy in all of this is to draw attention to the company as a developer of WiFi analysis tools, and to be honest, we find it pretty humorous."
First SF Community Wi-Fi Meeting Notes
As useful as blogs are for two-way communication, there's still something qualitatively different about face-to-face discussions. I've found this when I meet people at conferences who I've only known through their blogs, when I meet some of the bloggers from a particular area, and in conversations that eventually migrate from blog comments to phone calls or e-mails to in-person interactions. Blogs have other benefits that in-person conversations don't have, like findability, creating a lasting record, and the ability to have lots of geographically-impossible interactions. But the give-and-take is never quite the same mediated as it is live and direct. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to be a part of these community forums about the San Francisco Wi-Fi project.
Come Find Out More About The SF Wi-Fi Project
I'm headed to San Francisco next week for the first two of eleven public neighborhood forums EarthLink and Google are holding about the city Wi-Fi project. The goal of the meetings is to tell you more about our proposal and hear your ideas. The first meeting will be held on October 3 at the Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church at 32 Ocean Ave. between Mission and Alemany, and the second will be at Southeast Community Facility at 1800 Oakdale Ave. at Phelps St. Both will start at 6 p.m.
New Orleans Wi-Fi Update
The Times-Picayune published an
I guess this is why the "take notes now, blog them later" strategy is risky. I'm occupied all day with an internal presentation, and not only do I have more BlogHer stuff to write about, but we also just announced another Muni Wi-Fi city. Here's a collection of municipal wi-fi-related stuff that's ended up in my bookmarks (currently straddling myFavorites and del.icio.us). This is the last of the odds and ends that I didn't get a chance to publish from the Anaheim Wi-Fi Network launch. In addition to uploading the rest of my photos to this Flickr set, here's one bulleted list of miscellany, a la a newspaper sports column. This is also a good place to drop any questions you have about the new network -- in the comments below. I'm back in the Atlanta office and working on publishing the rest of my notes. Here are some brief highlights from the speeches commemorating the launch of the EarthLink Wi-Fi Network in Anaheim: If anyone needs anything else done, I think there's still a little authority vested in these. The line forms in the back.
EarthLink To Build Out Pasadena Wi-Fi Network
Muni Wi-Fi In The News
Wrapping Up The Anaheim Coverage
Highlights from Anaheim Launch Speeches
Now That Anaheim's Unwired...
Tags:
Don Berryman's Opening Remarks
I've found a nice shady spot to blog from, over by the concessions tent. Rosie is being interviewed for Cnet in front of me and people are trying out the network from a couple of kiosks. I've got a free moment, so I'm looking over my notes from the speeches I just heard. Here are some of the points from Don Berryman, President of EarthLink Municipal Networks:
Wire Cutting Ceremony
I'm under the tent listening to the speeches from the leaders of EarthLink, Motorola, Tropos, and the City of Anaheim at the Wire Cutting Ceremony. I'm blogging from the EarthLink Wi-Fi network itself, and appear to be the only nerd in the audience taking notes live with a laptop right now. I'm guessing that's going to change quickly.
Canopy Gear Atop City Hall
Here's Staff Network Architect Tom Holbrook and Paul Varnedoe running some network tests in the parking lot near City Hall. Between the ubiquitous laptops and the tangle of wires Tom's got, we're not a tough group to spot.
Anaheim Coverage Area
Here's a close-up of the current Anaheim EarthLink Wi-Fi coverage area:
Click to get to a bigger photo
It's not the clearest photo -- I'll work on getting a better one today. Here's the whole map including current and future plans:
Click to get to a bigger photo
This Morning In Anaheim
There's good coverage of the Anaheim project and today's unwiring ceremony in the LA Times this morning. They mention one of our first test customers -- Rosie Navarrete -- and her store Caracol Toys and Candy. I got to meet Rosie yesterday. Her Wi-Fi and technology knowledge is astounding, and she makes really cool custom piñatas too. I'm declaring Caracol the official Piñata maker of record for Earthling. For $20, you can get one made to your specifications. Rosie said she gets all kinds of clients from all over LA, from emo kids to graduation parties to *ahem* bachelor parties and the like. In addition to the Piñatas, her store is stocked with strange and wonderful mexican candies. They don't sell online yet, but I'm hoping they head in that direction.
I'm Becoming A Node Spotter
I spent all morning doing a ride-along with Paul Varnedoe, Senior Project Manager on the Anaheim Muni Wi-Fi project. Paul showed me all of the physical devices that make up the wireless network, from the nodes up on light poles to the gateway units and the canopy gear atop City Hall. He gave me the run-down on how they talk to each other. It's all pretty invisible unless you know what to look for.
On The Road This Week
I'll be taking off for Anaheim this afternoon and will be blogging from there all week, to get a nuts-and-bolts tour of the EarthLink Wi-Fi network, celebrate our unwiring of the city, and attend the Taste of Anaheim festival. Drop me a line if you're in the area and would like to meet up.
Mayor's Event For Philly Wi-Fi
Last week was a busy one for Municipal Wi-Fi. In addition to the New Orleans announcement, there was also good news in Philadelphia where mayor John Street held a signing ceremony that officially put the plan for EarthLink to unwire Philadelphia into action.
EarthLink Gets Approval For New Orleans Wi-Fi Network
I'm very pleased to report that we've been approved to build out and support a Wi-Fi network in New Orleans, thanks to a New Orleans City Council ordinance this week. More on the project's history here.
New Orleans-bound
I'm headed down to New Orleans to participate in the Brain Jams unconference tomorrow, meet as many people as I can (bloggers and non), and learn more about how things are down there. If there's news on our efforts to...
A Few Updates
- New Orleans Wi-Fi network - Grayson Daughters wrote about the current situation today in Georgia Political Digest. She reached city CIO Greg Mefferts via e-mail, who reiterated his pledge to keep the city Wi-Fi network up no matter what the consequences.
- San Francisco Wi-Fi network - There was some discussion in the blogosphere this week about privacy concerns with the new network and fear of theft at current San Francisco Wi-Fi hotspots. The link is to a map of the whole discussion on Tech.memeorandum.com.
- Net neutrality legislation - Since last we left off on Net Neutrality, a House of Representatives subcommittee voted down a bill described as similar to the Wyden bill against prioritizing packet traffic. Russell Shaw of ZDNet has suggested that we should all think about this issues and where the candidates stand as the next election draws near.
- A challenge to the DRM battery drain study - Last month I wrote about a study claiming that Digital Rights Management software shortens the battery life of portable devices. Gizmodo linked to an article today refuting the claim with a counter-experiment. One commenter refers to the original study as "just bad science". Judge for yourself here.
EarthLink Wins Bid For San Francisco Wi-Fi Network
This evening I received the exciting news that we've been selected to build the municipal wireless network for the City of San Francisco. Read on for an official statement from Executive Vice President Donald Berryman.
More Ways To Help In New Orleans
Shortly after I published the article about EarthLink stepping in to try to help with the New Orleans Municipal Wi-Fi network, I heard about a few more ways to help out the city.
Working To Keep Wi-Fi In New Orleans
I was thrilled to find out this morning that the City of New Orleans had approached us to ask if we'd take over the network ourselves and keep it running for them. I followed up with our Muni Wi-Fi team and found out that we've agreed to the city's request, and are in the process of applying for the licensing required to get it done. Read on for the details.
More On EarthLink And Google And A Lack Of Wires
... I feel like today I should go back and explain a little bit about the history of the San Francisco proposal for those of you who are just now learning about all of this Muni business.
EarthLink and Google Offer To Build SF Wi-Fi Network Together
The following statement is attributed to Donald Berryman, executive vice president of EarthLink and president of the ISP’s municipal networks unit: “Yesterday, EarthLink and Google jointly submitted a ‘Request For Proposal’ (RFP) to the City of San Francisco to build a citywide wireless municipal network. This proposal presents a unique opportunity for both companies. By coming together to leverage the strengths of both companies, we will be able to offer services to different customers on the network that fit with their own individual needs and wants.
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