Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that the city will begin taking requests for proposals in turning Chicago into a wireless community.
The mayor is seeking submissions from private-sector firms that would provide Internet access throughout the city, including free wireless service in Chicago public schools, parks and other public places. The city said it will let providers use its infrastructure, such as street lights and lamp poles, to help in constructing the wireless broadband network, projected to cost about $18.5 million.
“In technology, as in too many other areas of our society, there’s a wide gap between the haves and have-nots,” Mayor Daley said at a news conference. “It’s known as the digital divide-and the people on the wrong side of the divide generally have lower incomes and less education.”
Mayor Daley offered $250,000 in grants to help community groups find solutions to provide computers and Internet services to neighborhoods unable to afford the expense and he appointed an advisory panel to oversee the task.
Chicago already offers free wireless Internet access throughout its public library systems as well as at Millennium Park, the Cultural Center and Daley Plaza.
Responses are due back in approximately four months, but the city has already outlined a few expectations of potential vendors, saying it plans to collect a sizeable monthly fee, and possibly a share of revenues from multiple and competing service providers that would have wholesale access to the network. Some areas of the city, like industrial corridors, are likely to offer free Internet access. Regarding construction of the network, the city said it expects the winning bidder to install, maintain and upgrade roughly 7,500 small antennas atop streetlight poles about every other block throughout the city.
A likely candidate for Chicago’s business, EarthLink Inc. told attendees of an Internet Service Provider trade show in Baltimore in mid-May that it planned to franchise its architecture for municipal deployments.
According to an article in ISP Planet, EarthLink Vice President of Corporate Development Bill Topeglian said that municipal wireless could potentially extend to about 750 U.S. cities, with about 31 million households, covering an area of 17,000 square miles. But Topeglian explained that EarthLink does not have the resources to deploy on this kind of scale in an aggressive time frame and would need partners to build the infrastructure, own it and allow roaming.
Topeglian added that in exchange for the roaming agreement and other conditions, which weren’t disclosed, EarthLink would be willing to share its municipal Wi-Fi architecture, offering WISPs its volume pricing on equipment and services.
In fact, Topeglian said EarthLink is working with ISPs in major markets to place the ISP’s own brands on EarthLink’s infrastructure
EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso confirmed the comments made by Topeglian, but said he could not elaborate on the company’s plans. However, Grasso said the company should reveal more on the subject next quarter.
Lorene Yue is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
