Philadelphia to Build Largest Wi-Fi Network

By David Worthington | Published January 19, 2005, 10:22 AM

From South Philadelphia to the top of Willian Penn's hat onto the far Northeast, the entire city of Philadelphia will soon be the first municipality to go wireless on a grand scale with a program that will provide low-income residents with affordable Internet access, in addition to complimentary service in public parks.

While the very idea may resonate like a pipedream, Chief Information Officer Dianah Neff and her team have opted not to acquiesce to the hype and have officially outlined the city's proposal to activate a citywide high-speed wireless network by the summer of 2006.

The network will encompass nearly 135 square miles and consequently set the record for the world's largest Internet hot spot. The city's broadband network will maintain a constant upstream and downstream speed of 1 megabit per second due in large part to thousands of transmitters that will be strategically placed throughout the city. By design, access will be available anywhere radio waves can pass.

The city has moved ahead under the watchful eye of industry groups which have successfully lobbied the State to regulate municipal competition outside of Philadelphia. In December, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell enacted legislation that requires local municipalities to obtain consent from private sector telecommunications services prior to enacting their own Philadelphia experiments in broadband. Under the spirit of the law, companies that refuse permission must outline plans to roll out a comparable service within 14 months.

Philadelphia has successfully evaded legislative hurdles by reaching an agreement with Verizon Communications November of 2004. Verizon is the largest telephone operator in the greater Philadelphia region.

Meanwhile, Philadelphians who are proponents of the idea of municipal Internet access point out that the city's estimated 10.5 million dollar investment in broadband technology may serve to make the city of brotherly love a hub of technology. The city's expenditures are also intended to bridge the digital divide and will bring affordable Internet access to the city's poorest neighborhoods.

It is worth noting, however, that many people living in the city's economically depressed areas do not have simple telephone service.

More details of the program -- namely how it will be paid for -- will be made public by Philadelphia mayor John F. Street in a February 7 press conference. City officials have hinted at a public-private partnership.

Like many other cities in the United States, Philadelphia has been caught within the jaws of a budget crisis that has led to cutbacks in city services as well as layoffs of city workers. Some of the most controversial budget cuts have called for the closure of firehouses throughout Philadelphia, as well as a scaling back of the city's gentrifying Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI).

Neff made her pronouncement while attending a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.