Municipal News

Updates: Philly network buildout continues, Portland’s Wi-Fi access points face cold winter

A tale of two cities: Philadelphia’s wireless network, acquired by a group of local investors, is being rolled out to parts of the city where there’s no access. More importantly, the investors are going after the municipal and business markets, two areas that EarthLink failed to focus on in its muni Wi-Fi strategy. Philly’s network [...]

Orange and SFR agree to share fiber access in buildings, Iliad-Free cries foul

Orange and SFR, the two major broadband operators in France agreed to share the fiber optic lines going into apartment and office buildings. In a letter of intent signed by the operators, they stated that the “co-owner associations” of a multi-tenant building or their representatives would be able to choose the operator to install the [...]

Progress in reform of EU telecoms regulations

Last week, in a series of votes, the European Parliament adopted an amended legislative proposal called the Telecom Package. Originally prepared by Viviane Reding, head of the European Commission for Information Society, the initial text consisted of a set of propositions designed to revise the existing Regulatory Framework for Telecommunications (originally enacted in 2002). The initial [...]

Unlocked Apple 3G iPhone available from Apple Hongkong store

You can buy the Apple 3G iPhone unlocked from the Apple store in Hongkong. Unfortunately if you try to order and get it delivered outside Hongkong, the Apple HK online store does not allow it. But I am sure there are retailers in Hongkong who would gladly ship it to you. The Apple HK online [...]

Free Wi-Fi in Pleasant Hill, California

Pleasant Hill’s muni Wi-Fi network has been up and running for three months now, offering free (with banner ads)  Wi-Fi service to almost 70 percent of the city. There will be a paid option (no ads) very soon. The city set up a muni Wi-Fi network in 2005 for the police department at a cost of [...]

Lincoln, UK issues RFP for Wi-Fi network

The city of Lincoln in the UK has issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking bidders for the deployment of a wireless network that will cover the city center. Lincoln is in the eastern part of England and is best known for the gothic Lincoln Cathedral, built between 1192 and 1280. Details of the Lincoln city [...]

T-Mobile G1 Android phone is out, but has serious flaws

T-Mobile rolled out its latest device, the G1 phone which uses Android (Google’s open-source OS for mobile devices). Now that the hype has finally died down, here’s my take on the phone: it’s rather ugly: cheap plastic keyboard, looks too much like all the other old devices with their cheap plastic keyboards (thinking of the Sidekick) no [...]

London mayor wants citywide Wi-Fi

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, criticized Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s plan to give children up to £700 in computer vouchers to get them online. Johnson calls it a “desperate bribe” by the Prime Minister. Instead, Johnson says that London should create a citywide Wi-Fi network: “What we need is a city where anywhere you go, [...]

Municipalities and open access critical to FTTH growth in France

At a meeting of the French Committee for Public Initiative Networks (Comité des Réseaux d’Initiative Publique or CRIP) in the restored Amphitheater of Le Jardin des Plantes in Paris, Paul Champsaur, President of ARCEP, the French regulator, said that municipal and regional governments will be at the forefront of deployments of very high-speed broadband infrastructure [...]

Numericable: a new competitor shakes up the French broadband market

Is Numericable poised to inject even more competition into the French broadband market? That’s certainly the question on people’s minds these days, after Pierre Danon, new CEO of Numericable, presented a new vision and strategy for the cable company in which Cinven and Carlyle have heavily invested. His goal is to turn Numericable into an [...]

Our broadband sucks but at least we have a lot of company

Another day, another study announcing to the world that broadband infrastructure in most countries is not future-ready (for watching YouTube, video chatting and file sharing). It’s not even present-ready, given that many people are using these applications right now. A study based on results of Speedtest.net (which I use to measure bandwidth when I’m traveling - [...]

Lawsuits of the week: Comcast appeals FCC ruling, telco sues town for installing fiber

You didn’t really think Comcast would roll over and obey the FCC’s ruling forbidding them from blocking P2P applications, did you? Comcast rallied its legal troops and filed an appeal, which landed in the D.C. Circuit (whose reputation is pro-industry, anti-regulation). The Media Access Project has filed a petition asking the federal court to get [...]

Cost of text messaging keeps rising: $1310 per megabyte

It seems the only person outraged enough to complain about the rising cost of text messaging and possible collusion (aka price fixing) among the carriers is Senator Herb Kohl, head of the US Senate antitrust subcommittee who sent a letter to four mobile phone operators (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) which reads in part: “Your four [...]

Muni wireless thrives in China: Hangzhou Wi-Fi network goes live

Reading the US mainstream press gives you the impression that deployments of municipal wireless networks came to a complete halt when EarthLink pulled out of the business. While it’s true that the rush to deploy municipal wireless in the US has died down, the opposite is happening in Asia - especially China - where cities [...]

What’s really behind the Comcast 250 GB bandwidth cap

So you think it’s the FCC’s order telling Comcast not to block P2P applications? Not so, according to Harold Feld of the Media Access Project. It’s actually Comcast’s settlement with the Florida Attorney General. Apparently, Comcast had kicked off the highest 1000 users regardless of bandwidth use or geographical location because they were violating Comcast’s [...]

Say goodbye to coins: here come wireless digital parking meters

If there’s one municipal wireless application I am going to push, it’s wireless digital parking meters. I have been stuck so many times without enough coins to feed into those ancient meters that I think this is the one thing all cities need to implement now. It’s time to stop using Roman technology (i.e. coins). [...]

McAllen, Texas installs wireless video surveillance network

The police department of McAllen, Texas is installing 120 video surveillance cameras over the next five years in an effort to deter crime and catch suspects on film. The cameras will be linked via a wireless network, whose backhaul is a fiber optic network that runs through the city. The city is paying close to [...]

Cablevision launches Long Island Wi-Fi service

Cablevision has launched its Wi-Fi service in various parts of Long Island, but it is available only to customers of Optimum Online. The cable company has set up several Wi-Fi hotzones (they call them community zones) including Long Island Railroad station platforms and parking lots, using equipment from BelAir Networks. It’s unfortunate that non-Optimum Online [...]

A cold lonely summer for NebuAd

NebuAd, the company accused of wiretapping, forgery and browser hijacking by a Free Press report, has just lost their CEO, Robert Dykes. Sources report that the company has also laid off a significant number of employees. What happened to NebuAd? I remember them a year or so ago at one of my conferences — they [...]

Obama’s tech team filled with net neutrality advocates

Last week I posted an article about the ubiquitous presence (and sponsor support) of AT&T at the Democratic Convention so I wondered whether an Obama administration would really push for net neutrality. Several people pointed out that Barack Obama has always been a proponent of net neutrality and is well aware of the lack of [...]