At 09:42 AM 2/27/2006 -0600, Becca Vargo Daggett wrote:
>On Feb 27, 2006, at 1:00 AM, Haudy Kazemi wrote:
>
>> I hope that things go more in the direction of city-wide wifi, and  
>> I think
>> VOIP on PDAs (and on UMA cell phone devices in the near future) is  
>> a good
>> reason to go towards a wifi broadband solution rather than tearing  
>> up the
>> streets for more copper or fiber.
>
>One of the things they're doing is mapping existing resources,  
>including fiber. My understanding is that St. Paul is in a relatively  
>good position in terms of existing dark fiber and conduit.
>The instructions from the council direct the consultants to come up  
>with three recommendations encompassing both the best combination of  
>technologies for the city, and on the best business model. Thanks to  
>Councilor Thune, the consultants are also directed to explain the  
>other models they evaluated and why they were not recommended.

In regards to the existing dark fiber and conduit that St Paul may have, it
could be put to good use as a backhaul for city-wide wifi (as an
alternative to using 802.11a for backhaul).

Another idea is to embrace something like the FON project (en.fon.com) and
get that widely distributed in town.  The city might even be able to get
Qwest and Comcast to change their Terms of Service to explicitly permit a
city-customized FON-compatible (or similar) system to be put in place.  In
this case, the city gets the broadband companies to offer lower cost
service and change their TOS, and get wifi routers like used by FON
installed in homes all over town.  The wifi routers are purchased by
individual homes wishing to join the city service (members of which can get
broadband at lower prices.)

I think it is reasonable to think that the city could use its bargaining
power/leverage to get broadband prices lowered for its residents.  As an
example, U of MN students/staff/faculty can buy Comcast broadband service
for less than the regular rates ($40/month vs $57/month) (see
www.techmart.umn.edu).

However, I tend to lean towards the city owning and operating the
infrastructure, like roads and sewer lines, rather than coming up with a
complicated arrangement with the broadband companies.  As far as how to
handle billing, well maybe it could be combined onto the quarterly city
water bill (which currently offers a monthly payment plan as well).

-hk