On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 10:14 PM, dyna <<email obscured>> wrote:
> Historically, our city has entered into contracts to grant utilities
> access to our streets and such in return for fees. These are very
> lucrative franchises, and Exel Energy, Qwest, Reliant Energy, and a
> few other franchisers happily pay those franchise fees to gain access
> to our market. But when it came time to add a wireless internet
> provider to our city's light poles, this history was forgotten and
> our city was contractually bound to pay the provider, U.S. Internet,
> a fee of $1,250,000 a year. Bad deal that it was, that contract
> required that U.S. Internet provide service to at least 90% of the
> city, with no mention of "Ruckus" amplifiers being needed. We were
> also supposed to get free access to government websites and free
> access for a substantial number of non profits.
>
> Up here in the hood, we're used to indifferent service from cherry
> picking utilities. Qwest has trouble supporting a narrow band audio
> stream with their DSL, the gas company checked my meter because they
> couldn't believe the $40 monthly bill, and Exel seems to be relying
> on our water system for one side of their circuit. So it was no
> surprise when U.S. Internet took their sweet time getting nodes up
> here and then took even more of their sweet time getting them turned
> on. Who knows if they'll ever get them working... In testing, I have
> gotten no connection with the nearest node about 100 meters away. I
> can get a marginal connection with a node a bit over 150 meters away
> only if I stand by a facing window to enable a line of sight signal
> path. Searching for connections, I plopped the laptop on my dashboard
> and did a bit of WARdriving. I found nodes that could barely produce
> a measurable signal from 10 meters away, never mind communicate. I
> found more dead spots than coverage. But I was able to connect from
> Brookdale's parking lot, 400 meters from the city limits!
>
> Back to that contract... We are paying U.S. Internet $1,250,000 a
> year, supposedly so our police, firefighters, and other city
> employees can have internet access in at least 90% of the city. In
> reality there are so many dead spots the service is useless- when
> firefighters have run hoses to and from their pumper or set out the
> outriggers on a ladder, you can't just drive down the street until
> you can find a wireless connection. We are paying $1,250,000 for
> wireless service that is useless but for all but a few glorified
> webcams.
>
> We have given U.S. Internet more than enough time, and the service
> is probably not going to improve. U.S. Internet is privately held,
> and our city should have demanded access to their books before this
> bad deal was ever done. Our city estimates that U.S. Internet needs
> $3,000,000 a year just to cover debt service on the start up costs of
> the system. In vague claims, they say they either have 8,000
> subscribers... or is it 8,000 potential subscribers? At an average of
> $25 a month, 8,000 subscribers leaves U.S. internet still $600,000 a
> year short of servicing the system's debt, never mind maintainence
> and upgrades. We are looking at a system that is not working
> probably, and survives (for now) only through a subsidy of $1,250,000
> of our taxpayer dollars each year. And it's not going to get any
> better- WiFi operates in the microwave range where communication is
> pretty near literally "line of sight". Spacing nodes 200 meters apart
> doesn't cut it, and U.S. Internet will probably go under before they
> add enough nodes to give the promised 90% coverage.
>
> It's time to pull the contract and start building a real 21st
> century wireless communications system for Minneapolis.
>
> from the wireless dead zones of Hawthorne,
>
> Dyna Sluyter
>
>
>
> Dyna Sluyter
>
> Info about Dyna Sluyter: http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/sluyterdyna
>
> This topic's messages may be viewed at:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/3frmpNBJ8UpX779j8SHI5a
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--
Peter Fleck
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