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Wireless Internet still in study stage
Cost questions and a rapidly changing market have delayed opinions about the citywide project.
By Jason Wells
GLENDALE — Already a month late, city officials said they do not intend to present their recommendations for a citywide Internet network to the City Council until early November, after they have had a chance to sift through a complicated bag of findings and options.
“We’re going back to square one,” said Imelda Bickham, director of the city’s Information Services Department. “The industry is changing as we speak, so we need to adjust our strategy.”
A consortium of city department heads and private sector representatives met with the lead consultant on the project yesterday to go over the findings of his study, which were drawn from surveys, group interviews and infrastructure assessments.
Over the next few weeks, Bickham and her colleagues will be working on a recommendation to the City Council — originally scheduled for late August — that will incorporate not only the final picture of what the citywide network will look like, but the business model to fund it.
“The needs and the benefits need to balance out, and the benefits need to outweigh the cost of the network,” Bickham said.
It is a cautious process that is a long way from the fervent optimism evident in August, when the City Council and several city administrators initially pressed ahead with seeking bids for a franchise development similar to those proposed in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“The promises and terms that we thought we’d be getting a year ago have changed dramatically,” Mayor Ara Najarian said.
Originally, the city would have made its infrastructure and fiber-optic network available to a private Internet provider in exchange for citywide wireless service at a drastically reduced fee, or even for free.
But before jumping fully onto the bandwagon, staff proposed the city first undergo a market feasibility study. Since then, Oakland-based municipal Internet consultant Craig Settles has produced a vastly different picture of what a citywide network should look like for Glendale.
Most businesses want regional wireless connectivity, which a Glendale-specific network could not offer. School district officials would also need access to the city’s fiber-optic network and require a means to filter content through the county’s Office of Education servers. The medical community would want both wireless and increased fiber-optic capacity. City officials are still discussing the full scope of their needs.
Taken together, the pool of differing market needs makes network development complicated, Settles said.
“It’s time-consuming, and it may frustrate some people, but we’re talking about a healthy chunk of change and resources, so we need to make sure we do this right,” he said.
One thing is certain — Glendale residents will not see free citywide wireless Internet service, a concept Settles said is “dead as a doornail.”
San Francisco has drawn complaints from residents about the slow speed of their free Internet service that also comes plastered with online advertising, and Philadelphia has reported major cost overruns for its municipal Internet network plans.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles’ feasibility study — similar to the one Glendale has undergone — is expected to be completed in December. Glendale could latch on to and be an extension of plans there to provide free or reduced-fee citywide wireless Internet access, Bickham said, but that would also have to pass the cost-benefit test.
With all the uncertainty and stumbles in other cities — along with the recent announcement from Earthlink Inc., the nation’s largest municipal Wi-Fi network builder, to halt all city projects until it can figure out how to make them profitable — the true value of Glendale’s market feasibility study has now revealed itself, Najarian said.
“I’m very glad we decided to use some caution before getting into the Wi-Fi program for the city,” he said.
“We’re going back to square one,” said Imelda Bickham, director of the city’s Information Services Department. “The industry is changing as we speak, so we need to adjust our strategy.”
A consortium of city department heads and private sector representatives met with the lead consultant on the project yesterday to go over the findings of his study, which were drawn from surveys, group interviews and infrastructure assessments.
Over the next few weeks, Bickham and her colleagues will be working on a recommendation to the City Council — originally scheduled for late August — that will incorporate not only the final picture of what the citywide network will look like, but the business model to fund it.
“The needs and the benefits need to balance out, and the benefits need to outweigh the cost of the network,” Bickham said.
It is a cautious process that is a long way from the fervent optimism evident in August, when the City Council and several city administrators initially pressed ahead with seeking bids for a franchise development similar to those proposed in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“The promises and terms that we thought we’d be getting a year ago have changed dramatically,” Mayor Ara Najarian said.
Originally, the city would have made its infrastructure and fiber-optic network available to a private Internet provider in exchange for citywide wireless service at a drastically reduced fee, or even for free.
But before jumping fully onto the bandwagon, staff proposed the city first undergo a market feasibility study. Since then, Oakland-based municipal Internet consultant Craig Settles has produced a vastly different picture of what a citywide network should look like for Glendale.
Most businesses want regional wireless connectivity, which a Glendale-specific network could not offer. School district officials would also need access to the city’s fiber-optic network and require a means to filter content through the county’s Office of Education servers. The medical community would want both wireless and increased fiber-optic capacity. City officials are still discussing the full scope of their needs.
Taken together, the pool of differing market needs makes network development complicated, Settles said.
“It’s time-consuming, and it may frustrate some people, but we’re talking about a healthy chunk of change and resources, so we need to make sure we do this right,” he said.
One thing is certain — Glendale residents will not see free citywide wireless Internet service, a concept Settles said is “dead as a doornail.”
San Francisco has drawn complaints from residents about the slow speed of their free Internet service that also comes plastered with online advertising, and Philadelphia has reported major cost overruns for its municipal Internet network plans.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles’ feasibility study — similar to the one Glendale has undergone — is expected to be completed in December. Glendale could latch on to and be an extension of plans there to provide free or reduced-fee citywide wireless Internet access, Bickham said, but that would also have to pass the cost-benefit test.
With all the uncertainty and stumbles in other cities — along with the recent announcement from Earthlink Inc., the nation’s largest municipal Wi-Fi network builder, to halt all city projects until it can figure out how to make them profitable — the true value of Glendale’s market feasibility study has now revealed itself, Najarian said.
“I’m very glad we decided to use some caution before getting into the Wi-Fi program for the city,” he said.
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