dailywireless.org » Rhode Island Wireless: Show Me the Money

Rhode Island Wireless: Show Me the Money

This is going to change everything. — Jerry Maguire

Rhode Island’s plan to build a state-wide WiMAX network was setback this week when the General Assembly chose not to back a $28.5-million loan, reports the Providence Journal.

The money was needed as a guarantee to build the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs). But Legislators took out the loan-guarantee language when they passed the budget last week. The provision would have put state taxpayers on the hook for loan payments if the initiative failed to produce the revenue expected by the Economic Development Council.

The lawmakers told him [Saul Kaplan, executive director of the EDC] they wanted to see more private-sector participation in the program and suggested that other financing mechanisms be found, Kaplan said in an interview yesterday.
“So that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re having conversations with several private-sector players,” he said.
The idea behind the RI-WINs initiative was to build a secure, high-speed computer network that could be accessed anywhere in Rhode Island. Potential clients could be public safety agencies, emergency response workers, or companies that have a need to communicate with field representatives.
RI-WINs was not envisioned to be a Wi-Fi network for consumer use, such as those being developed in Philadelphia and San Francisco. The EDC wanted to roll out the network statewide, and formed a nonprofit business plan with the help of Altman & Vilandrie, a Boston telecommunications firm.
In May 2005, a feasibility study was made. In June 2006, RI-WINs went live with its pilot phase. This year RI-WINs hoped to begin the build out the network.
The May 2005 study assessed the feasibility of constructing a border-to-border wireless network in Rhode Island. The initial effort was funded with an $856,000 federal Homeland Security grant (pdf), making Rhode Island one of 12 recipients out of 130 applicants.
The $28.5 million that RI-WINs would have borrowed was for the initial construction of the network, financing costs and expenses through three years of operations.

STATE-WIDE BROADBAND NETS

RHODE ISLAND:
POPULATION: 1,076,189
AREA: 1,044 square miles
PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE: 1,033
VERMONT:
POPULATION: 623,050
AREA: 9,249 square miles
PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE: 65.8
SOUTH CAROLINA:
POPULATION: 4,321,249
AREA: 30,109 square miles
PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE: 133
KENTUCKY:
POPULATION: 4,041,769
AREA: 39,728 square miles
PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE: 101.7
OREGON:
POPULATION: 3,641,056
AREA: 97,073 square miles
PEOPLE PER SQUARE MILE: 35.6
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005

While several companies, such as Verizon and Cox, have already invested millions of dollars in communications infrastructure within Rhode Island, Kaplan said those companies are focused on serving densely populated areas.
Private-sector companies don’t serve the “enterprise market” very well, he said.
“The key tomorrow is going to be that broadband connection that travels with you, on your laptop, your PDA,” he said. “Remember, this is an economic development platform we want to be out in front on.”

A May 2005 feasibility study (pdf) indicated that the most effective network would utilize WiMAX backhaul with WiFi technology at the consumer edge. The 1 Mbps state-wide network was expected utilize a combination of hotspot, mesh and WiMAX architectures.

The estimated infrastructure cost was some $14 million — much less than the estimated $39.9 million it would cost to use cellular technology. A statewide meshed Wi-Fi network would require 9,000 access points while just 120 WiMAX base stations would be required to cover the state.

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the Union, spanning just 1,044 square miles with a population near 1 million.

The Center for Public Integrity’s “Well Connected” Project monitors efforts to ensure that government information about broadband deployment is available to the public.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., released draft legislation in May that would require the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create and publicize a nationwide map in which a broadband provider’s service locations could be searched in detail.

The Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, last month introduced S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act. The bill would require the FCC to supplement the information it currently collects about broadband deployment with more localized data, including ZIP code plus four digits. It calls for the creation of online maps showing the availability of high-speed Internet services at the census-block level.

The Federal Trade Commission’s new report on “Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy,” was released this week in Washington.

“This report recommends that policy makers proceed with caution in the evolving, dynamic industry of broadband Internet access, which generally is moving toward more – not less – competition. In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area.”

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras and Commissioner Jon Leibowitz both said they needed to break through the rhetoric on both sides of the net neutrality issue net before making any policy decisions, reports C/Net.

Critics say the FTC has not been a bastion of “neutrality” themselves. Deborah Platt Majoras, the FTC’s Republican chairman, said extensive Net neutrality legislation currently pending in the U.S. Senate is unnecessary. The “Internet Access Task Force” reflected those views. The mobile phone industry is against equal-access obligations, of course.

The FCC hopes to limit a ballooning $4 billion subsidy program while policymakers develop reforms. The FCC has raised the idea of reducing the ballooning costs of the Universal Service Fund through “reverse auctions“, where the winning bidder is the one with the lowest USF subsidy. Cellular carriers blasted the FCC’s proposal to cap wireless universal service support in rural areas.