Boston holds the 2004 Democratic Convention, July 26-29, bringing 35,000 Democrats, reporters and hangers-on into the city. The Convention and Vistor’s Bureau says attendees are pouring into Logan International and filling hotels in the Back Bay, Cambridge, and the Theater District.
Preparations for wireless services have been underway for months. Nextel is the Official Wireless Service Provider for the DNC, providing wireless phones equipped with Nextel Direct Connect, their walkie-talkie service; RIM BlackBerries with wireless Internet and email; and iM1100 PCMCIA wireless modem cards (for a blazingly fast 14Kbps). Nextel will also deploy specialized vehicles for satellite cellular coverage in and around the Boston area.
Cingular Wireless has enhanced its GSM/GPRS network in the downtown Boston through a series of software upgrades and added more than 720 voice channels at more than a dozen existing cell sites in and around the Fleet Center and Boston Common.
Along with the $1.5 million in permanent network enhancements Cingular will deploy 3 Cell site On Wheels (COWs) — mobile cell sites that can support additional capacity for temporary increases in volume. The COWs will increase capacity in the South Boston area as well as at the Government Center.
Cingular’s Regional Network Operations Center (RNOC) monitors and maintains its wireless network 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The monitoring system allows Cingular to assess and handle any wireless network emergency situation within minutes. To ensure the network is performing well during the summit, Cingular has assigned a team of network technicians dedicated to support the event.
Cingular operates an advanced GSM/GPRS/EDGE network in New England. Cingular Wireless claims it was the first carrier in North America to launch EDGE in June 2003 and expects to substantially complete nationwide deployment by September, 2004.
Boston DSL provider Verizon doesn’t anticipate problems handling an increased load of home workers during the convention.
Three local companies are offering their services for free. During the week of July 26, NetSpoke will give new customers a seven-day free trial of its Web conferencing service, which includes the first audio call. Service includes unified audio- and videoconferencing, reservation-less audioconferencing, conference recording, transcription and archiving.
The City of Boston, Emergency Management, Police, Fire, Hospitals and Transit Authority have been training for the worst. The FBI warned Friday that there may be attacks on the news media.
Scan Boston, Scan Cambridge and Mass Live have live scanners. Cryptome published DNC radio frequencies. Boston Webcams include Boston Traffic Cameras.
Disney, Viacom, General Electric, Time/Warner and Rupurt Murdock cover mostly blood and death live. PBS, C-Span and Roll Call have news. Throughout the 2004 DNC, Vyvx will provide 71 video backhauls for 16 broadcasters, enabling global delivery of the Convention to millions of viewers.
Local News coverage is supplied by Channel 2 (PBS), Channel 4 (CBS), Channel 5 (ABC), Channel 7 (NBC), Channel 38(UPN), Channel 56 (WB) while Boston radio includes WBCN-104.1 FM, WBUR 90.9, WBZ NewsRadio 1030 AM, WFNX, WGBH 89.7 FM and WZLX 100.7 FM.
Local newspapers include the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and the Boston Phoenix.
CyberJournalist has a list of Convention bloggers. They include the Wireless Election Connection where teams of “digital reporters,” from various universities, armed with a camera phones, will capture election news, events and activities and post pictures, audio and video to the mobile weblog hosted at Textamerica. Boston IndyMedia and The Daily Show may have the most penetrating stories.
Boston Wireless and WiFi FreeSpots include The Wrap, b.good, Newbury Guest House, Boston Architectural Center, Colortek, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Residence Inn Boston Harbor on Tudor Wharf, Hotel Commonwealth, Onyx Hotel, TechSpace, Boston Public Library, Brookline Public Library, and the Chelmsford Public Library.
