One of the things I find most interesting about watching politicians (granted, it's a pretty short list) is watching them deal with the unexpected.
Government throws any of its practioners a lot of surprises. You thought it would be the Year of Making Schools Better but it turns out to be the Year of the Garbage Strike. Stuff like that.
There is such a nasty surprise potentially brewing in a spot that I doubt many people have thought much about. It's not the most important program in the city. But it was a cool idea, and if it melts down, we'd be worse off.
It's Wireless Philadelphia, the ambitious plan to provide high-speed wireless Internet access across the city. In some parks and public areas, the access would be free; for most customers, it would require a subscription of around $20 per month.
The bad news about this idea is that it is failing in cities across the country. Last week, EarthLink -- the company that will provide the actual internet service for Wireless Philadelphia -- said it would cut 900 jobs and close four offices, including one in Harrisburg. That followed an earlier annoucement that the company was taking a wait-and-see approach to other citywide wireless grand schemes. Chicago shelved its plans. So did Houston, San Francisco, Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, and St Petersburg, Florida.
Wireless Philadelphia was quick to announce, on its blog and in a story in the Daily News, that it would press on, undeterred.
How, and what on earth could the good news about such a program be? Turns out Philly got out ahead of the Wi-Fi fray by cutting a deal with EarthLink early, and we apparently -- surprisingly! -- engineered one heck of a deal. Industry analyst Craig Settles was quoted in Silicon.com:
"Everyone wanted to be another Philadelphia. But they didn't understand the complexities of how Philadelphia structured its non-profit organisation to help defray costs...."
The story continues:
By most counts, Philadelphia was extremely lucky in being the first major US city to propose such a network. As a result the company negotiated an extremely good deal with EarthLink, which promised to pay $15m to build the network and provide service. The contract, which spans 10 years, requires the city only to provide access to light poles and other structures to deploy the wireless radios. It does not require the city to spend any amount of money with EarthLink on services, although city officials say it will likely become a customer.
Also, Wireless Philadelphia subsidises the cost for low-income households through grants. That's because Wireless Philadelphia has, wisely, pitched itself as primarily a program to get the internet in the hands of poor folks and others now cut off from a healthy exchange of information.
So Philly actually did something both first and, apparently, well, and now the whole business model is threatened. Figures.
But this is where smart goverment can step in.
Programs like this work when they are supported by the words and actions of government leaders. The next mayor could help Wireless Philadelphia meet its goals by making sure the city signs up as a customer, for example, and by pitching Philadelphians to sign up too.
Is this the most important decision the next mayor will face? No.
But it will be an interesting test of how that man handles the X factor of the crazy, unexpected mess that gets thrown at government leaders every day, and whether or not he can turn it into opportunity.
Comments (34)
I'd note that I'm signed up for Philly Wireless, Earthlink, Feather or whatever you want to call it. Yet, it's signal is so unreliable (although it sends five bars) that I'm now posting this via a neighbor's two bar unsecured system. I hope Philly's wifi works out and soon but I'm not holding my breathe. Sometimes, you get what you pay for...and in this case, it may not be much.
Posted by mdcphilly | September 4, 2007 11:40 PM
i am using verizon instead. it's the same price to have my own personal dsl line ($20). why would i pay as much for a unproven story when i can use my own line?
make it free, open with no logins or anything, and tax us. we'd get the first positive news coverage in years.
Posted by kyle | September 5, 2007 6:27 PM
The service stinks 50% of the time. And it's OUT the other 50%.
Tracing route to earthlink.net [209.86.93.202]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 * * * Request timed out.
3 1424 ms * * 172.17.64.74
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 1107 ms * 951 ms 206.252.160.71
7 * 1143 ms * 206.252.160.69
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 1114 ms * * 209.165.107.202
11 * * 1513 ms bor02-ge-1-1.pa-philadel0.ne.earthlink.net [209.86.83.30]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 1180 ms 804 ms * pop01.earthlink.net [209.86.93.202]
17 1030 ms 970 ms * pop01.earthlink.net [209.86.93.202]
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
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23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 1418 ms * 1594 ms pop01.earthlink.net [209.86.93.202]
Trace complete.
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