Guest Guest Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 I had more time to review the report on the Binghamtot muni wif system. It just gets worse the more you look.... Did Profesor Angelo Mastrangelo even read his own report? Look who worked on it: Prepared By Peter Baisch Phillip Barbee Kara Bassett Gary Ondecko Amy Smith Assissted By Ian Bell James DiMascio Philip Grommet Prof. Angelo Mastrangelo Date Prepared December 3, 2007 (six month AFTER the city voted on the doing the project. What did they base their vote on in July 2007?) What this the last thing Jim Dimascio worked on befor being fired? Good job there, Jim! Here is a reference from his report, listed in its appendix: Cities turning off plans for Wi-Fi By Judy Keen, USA TODAY CHICAGO — Plans to blanket cities across the nation with low-cost or free wireless Internet access are being delayed or abandoned because they are proving to be too costly and complicated. Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and other cities are putting proposed Wi-Fi networks on hold. "Wi-Fi woes everywhere you turn," says Russell Hancock of Silicon Valley Network, a troubled Wi-Fi project for 40 towns in California's high-tech corridor. Wi-Fi allows laptop users to work anywhere, making some jobs portable. It also is essential to mobile devices, including iPhones, enabling such emerging technology to perform complex online tasks fast. Chicago couldn't reach agreement with service providers after offering free use of street lamps for radio transmitters in exchange for a network built, owned and operated by providers at no cost to the city. "All these big city projects were doomed to failure because they were too complicated," says Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News. Service providers, he says, want city governments to sign up as long-term customers to offset costs. Wi-Fi can help police, firefighters and inspectors access information quickly. Some cities, including San Francisco, hoped to provide free service for most users offset by ad revenue. Others, such as Springfield, Ill., wanted to give free service to low-income residents and charge everyone else competitive rates. Minneapolis charges about $20 a month. "It's too soon to say" what Chicago will do next, chief information officer Hardik Bhatt says. The city decided that decreasing consumer demand and competition mean Wi-Fi might not succeed without a big city investment. EarthLink, one company negotiating with Chicago, is scaling back its Wi-Fi business. "We will not devote any new capital to the old municipal Wi-Fi model that has us taking all the risk," CEO Rolla Huff said last month. "That model is simply unworkable." EarthLink's announcement also derailed citywide Wi-Fi in San Francisco and Houston. Elsewhere: •Cincinnati shelved its plan last week for a citywide network because the market is too unstable. •The Silicon Valley plan for free Wi-Fi is at risk after providers decided local governments must be "anchor tenants" for the service. •Springfield, Ill., is looking for another partner after AT&T dropped Wi-Fi plans last month. •St. Louis is trying to figure out how to power Wi-Fi transmitters on 1,700 street lights when they're not illuminated without spending millions of dollars. Keen, Judy. "Cities turning off plans for Wi-Fi." USA TODAY. 20, September 2007: A1. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2007-09-19-wifi_N.htm Professor Mastrangleo even ignored the references he included in his own report. This one clearly states Public Security is the best objective of muni wifi. Binghamton's new network has no public security element whatsoever! Public Safety is Job No. 1 "The No. 1 application that all cities want is public safety," Vos said. "Wi-Fi has more capacity than cellular digital, and second, it's cheap -- you don't have to pay Verizon every month for all those connections." In San Antonio, a municipal Wi-Fi pioneer, ambulances send live medical readings directly from medical monitors to the hospital via the Wi-Fi system as they transport the victim. Police need to send information and photos. "In the aftermath of the Underground bombing in London, the police and ambulance personnel at the scene had no idea what they would find when they went into the tunnels," Vos said. "But people on the scene started taking photos and film clips with their cell phones and sending them to the police." These were forwarded to the first responders, who used the information to better focus their efforts, she added. "Looking back over the last couple of years, the main lesson I learned is that when a city sets up a citywide Wi-Fi network, they have to look at it as an infrastructure that carries a variety of services and applications," Vos said. "They can't look at wireless itself as a service." Once it's available, it quickly becomes a necessity in people's lives. In large cities such as New York, she said, "there is a lot of free Wi-Fi available that all those people walking around with iPhones and iPod Touches can use. So if you want to go to a particular bar in SoHo and can't remember its name, you can Google it right on the street. Once you get used to that, you never want to go back to living without it." Bert Latamore is a journalist with 10 years' experience in daily newspapers and 25 in the computer industry. He has written for several computer industry and consumer publications. He lives in Linden, Va., with his wife, two parrots and a cat. 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Guest Guest Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 "That model is simply unworkable." - EarthLink, one company negotiating with Chicago, is scaling back its Wi-Fi business. "We will not devote any new capital to the old municipal Wi-Fi model that has us taking all the risk," CEO Rolla Huff said last month. EarthLink's announcement also derailed citywide Wi-Fi in San Francisco and Houston. Can it be any clearer????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 15, 2008 Report Share Posted March 15, 2008 And yet the project went forward and not one person raised an eyebrow. What does that say about the sheep around here? Don't they teach independent thought at Binghamton University? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Who knows what they teach there, ask Sean Massey or Dara Silberstein. I wouldn't entrust my kids with those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 I guess Angelo must have missed that part of the report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Only Matt Ryan and Tarik Abdelazim could see spending $75,000 to get a $25,000 grant for a project we do not need that will not work as a bargain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Arzouian Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Only Matt Ryan and Tarik Abdelazim could see spending $75,000 to get a $25,000 grant for a project we do not need that will not work as a bargain. Yup, and City Council just nodded thier heads like those little dogoie dolls you se in the back of car windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 "That model is simply unworkable." - EarthLink, one company negotiating with Chicago, is scaling back its Wi-Fi business. "We will not devote any new capital to the old municipal Wi-Fi model that has us taking all the risk," CEO Rolla Huff said last month. EarthLink's announcement also derailed citywide Wi-Fi in San Francisco and Houston. Can it be any clearer????? Can anybody explain why it wil work here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 apparently they cannot........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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