May 16, 2006 Deadline Set for Wireless Internet in Parks By SEWELL CHAN NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/nyregion/16wifi.html?pagewanted=print New York City officials set a July deadline yesterday for a city contractor to have a wireless network up and running in Central Park, in what would be a major expansion of free Internet access that the city plans to replicate across its vast ribbons of parkland during the next several years. The effort is part of a larger initiative that would also set up wireless networks by summer's end in parts of three more large parks: Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. All told, the commitment by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which announced the timetable at a City Council hearing, represents a major leap forward for a three-year-old project that has been hobbled by technical difficulties and a lack of interest by major Internet providers. However, it remained far from clear yesterday whether the deadlines could be met. In pushing ahead, New York is, perhaps, trying to catch up with other cities, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, which have vowed to create citywide wireless networks and to treat Internet access as a broadly available public utility. While New York's effort is limited to its parks, it is expected to have a huge impact, given the number of parks across the five boroughs and the density of the neighborhoods surrounding them. In many instances, residents and businesses near city parks are likely to be able to tap into the services. The city is following an example set by private groups like the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, which activated a network in Bryant Park in June 2002, and the Alliance for Downtown New York, which did the same in eight Lower Manhattan sites from 2003 to 2005, including City Hall Park, Bowling Green and the new Wall Street Park. NYC Wireless, a nonprofit group that did the technical work for those projects, has also set up networks at Union Square, Tompkins Square and Stuyvesant Cove Parks, and is building a network at Brooklyn Bridge Park this year. So far, the city's own efforts have paled compared with those achievements by private groups. In June 2003, the Parks Department sought bidders willing to design, build, operate and maintain Wi-Fi networks in all or part of Battery, Central, Flushing Meadows-Corona, Pelham Bay, Prospect, Riverside, Union Square, Van Cortlandt and Washington Square Parks, as well as Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Three companies responded Verizon Communications and two tiny start-up companies. Verizon was selected in April 2004, but a month later it backed out of the deal. The contract was then awarded that October to one of the two smaller companies, Wi-Fi Salon, which is based on the Upper East Side. While the company installed a network last summer at Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, it missed a deadline last fall to finish the work at the other parks. At the City Council hearing, Robert L. Garafola, the department's deputy commissioner for management and budget, said that the city had extended the deadline to August. "We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer," he said. After the hearing, however, doubts began to emerge. Asked about the deadlines, Marshall W. Brown, the owner of Wi-Fi Salon, said: "That's the timetable set forth by Parks. Let's see if that's attainable." Later he added, "It's obviously going to be tight, but I'm confident we'll be able to pull it off." The parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, said his department would probably have to pick another contractor if Mr. Brown could not meet the new deadline. "All of us want to see it happen," Mr. Benepe said in a telephone interview. "We'll have to make an honest assessment to see, if we can't get it done with this operator, if there's another operator who can and wants to. The technology exists; the willingness to invest in that technology up front may or may not exist." Mr. Benepe defended the decision to rely on the private sector for the project. "We're not paying for this service and the city is not investing any money in it, so we expect the operator to pay for it." A wireless network involves a complex system of cables, radios, antennas and nodes that allow users to tap into the Internet without a cable. Mr. Brown said he hoped to make money by partnering with a big communications company that would promote its products and also through limited advertising that park visitors would have to read before being able to browse the Web. Under the agreement, Mr. Brown promised to pay the city the greater of $30,000 a year for three years or 10 percent of gross receipts from the park-based networks. But since reaching the deal with Mr. Brown, the city has all but abandoned that model for future wireless contracts. In a new request for proposals in February, the city asked for bids to create wireless networks in additional parks with almost no revenue for the city. For instance, it has selected a partnership of the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and NYC Wireless to create a network in the plaza, which is near the United Nations. The partnership will pay the city $1 a year. Expert Communications/TravelNet Technologies, a Long Island company, has been chosen to build networks at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and at Columbus Park in Downtown Brooklyn. The city expects to receive just $700 a year for each site. Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan suggested that the city was finally realizing that to put wireless systems in place, it could not expect to make money from the effort. "I don't mean to say 'I told you so,' but we did have this conversation," Ms. Brewer told Mr. Garafola at the hearing. Other parks to be covered under the new plan are Carroll, Fort Greene and Cobble Hill Parks, all in Brooklyn. At one point during yesterday's hearing, Councilman Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. of Queens asked whether wireless service could be established at beaches and pools some day. (He did not get a clear answer.) In any case, Councilwoman Helen D. Foster of the Bronx said she did not look forward to such a day. "I would hope I would never have to have my laptop at the beach," she said. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
