On May 17, 2006, at 2:33 PM, Dustin Goodwin wrote:
I have been reading all the stories around the Parks Dept. plans
and franchise they granted to Wifi Salon etc.
1. I was surprised that the franchise agreement from the city to
the providers set deadline for turning on service. It does not
seems that the light poll franchise has any similar stipulation as
there appears to be zero usage of those franchises. The quote from
Wifi Salon is telling:
"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.""
Not clear to me the city can do anything to force them to go into
service. Other then revoke the franchise?
That's right. Though truth be told, Marshall has had 2 years to make
this work so far. The current RFP has defined delivery dates in it to
maintain the exclusivity of the franchise. If you miss the date
(presumably without working with the Parks Department), they have the
right to revoke the franchise they've granted you.
This is something they learned from their awful experience with
Marshal. It was mentioned at the hearing that the extension was so
WiFi Salon could purchase more equipment, but I think that's just
Marshall making excuses. Most of the parks should have been up by now.
Incidentally, WiFi Salon pays a _minimum_ of $30,000 to the parks
department per year. They like that money, and I'm sure that they
believe (rightly so) that if they pulled the contract, they'd never
get as sweet a deal from anyone else. So their interests are aligned
with the service provider, which goes against the public's interest.
2. Lots of these articles mention free wifi in the parks. I doubt
the parks franchise agreement dictates free.. I am certain the
light poll franchise had nothing similar.
The current RFP requires free end user service. The light pole
franchise had no such requirement because DOITT expected no Wi-Fi to
be deployed, only cell based wireless. Even with Wi-Fi, they never
expected anything except the extension of an existing network.
Dana Spiegel
Executive Director
NYCwireless
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.NYCwireless.net
+1 917 402 0422
Read the Wireless Community blog: http://www.wirelesscommunity.info
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