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Plan For L.A. Municipal Broadband Starting To Take Shape

Ben Kraus |
November 22, 2013 | 1:22 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Los Angeles residents might have access to free Wi-Fi in less than five years. (Flickr/The Digitel)
Los Angeles residents might have access to free Wi-Fi in less than five years. (Flickr/The Digitel)

As the Los Angeles City Council continues its push for a free municipal Wi-Fi network, more details have started to emerge about the city's ambitious broadband plan.

On November 6th, the City Council unanimously adopted a motion to recommend that the Information Technology Agency (ITA) pursue all possible options to bring broadband service to L.A. citizens. That included drafting a Request For Proposals (RFP), an official document to be submitted to entice potential vendors of the service to make offers to partner with the city.

A draft of that RFP has been written, though review from legal counsel is required first before it can be released for comment. Input from the Innovation Technology and General Services committee, chaired by Councilman Bob Blumenfield, is also needed.

"We hope it will be released as early as January," said Steve Reneker, General Manager of the ITA.

SEE ALSO: Metro Red And Purple Lines To Have Wi-Fi By 2016

Once the draft for public comment is released, Blumenfield's goal is to start discussions on how to improve the plan. Blumenfield made the initial motion in the City Council and spearheaded the initiative.

The aim is to "have as broad of an RFP as possible out there and let a thousand flowers bloom," he said. "[So we can] let these companies figure out how they can partner with the city and make an offer."

Reneker hopes to have evaluation groups — with members of the private sector, academic institutions and the public — also involved with the project.

"We're considering some kind of outreach effort," he noted. "It would be important for citizens come in and [point out what is important], so we can have something in the RFP to point to and say this is why we are doing this besides, right now, just economic development."

Blumenfield is pushing to have the RFP available publicly on his website.

When the official RFP is submitted to potential bidders — Reneker is shooting for early 2014 — it should be open for a couple of months, according to Jason Levin, communications director for Blumenfield.

Concerns have been raised as to how the city will pay for such an endeavor, since lawmakers have said they are hoping not to use additional tax dollars to pay for it.

"It’s more just trying to be smart about the money we’re already spending," said Blumenfield.

Blumenfield hopes to create what he refers to as “Fiberhoods” by connecting homes and businesses to the internet through fiber optic cables. Those cables would also serve as the backbone of a virtual infrastructure designed to deliver Wi-Fi to community residents. Reneker estimates the build-out could take three to five years to complete.

In order to create the “Fiberhoods,” the City Council is planning to work with a private company for the network’s build out and leverage its assets in exchange for the company setting up the network around the city. This would entail allowing the potential investors control of the city’s infrastructure, such as streetlights and parking meters. Advertising on the network could also provide additional funding to prospective partners.

The idea of leveraging assets to offset the costs for a Wi-Fi build out is commonly referred to as the “anchor tenant” model. To attract a potential provider, though the provider would have to change its business model to comply with what they’re trying to create, the city can promise an additional revenue stream over a 10-year period, according to Reneker.

"We’re willing to give up a number of services and dedicate them to a vendor over a 10-year period of time," Reneker told Gigabit Nation. "It’s an anchor tenant on steroids model."

In addition to the fiber network for government use, he noted, the city can guarantee a chance to overhaul and provide support for its entire data and voice (calling) network. And Reneker has already seen this idea bear some promising fruit.

"Certainly we’re seeing there’s interest from AT&T and Verizon," he said. "And we’re seeing that there’s interest from the cable companies, maybe even a consortia type of manner."  

With that in mind, the councilman has little doubt a vendor will be persuaded to work with the city on the project with the potential to offer a paid service with higher speeds.  

"I expect a lot of smart business people out there would say [partnering with the city] would be very valuable in exchange for using that network to be able to offer a premium service," Blumenfield said. "But right now they can’t afford to make that offer, because they don’t have the infrastructure to back it up."

The project also faces inevitable questions about internet security and identity theft over such a large, public and unsecured network.

"This is going to be an unfiltered, free wide open network," Reneker said.

SEE ALSO: Google, Yahoo React To NSA Interception Allegations

However, Blumenfield thinks the dangers of going online are hard to be rid of entirely, and he notes an inherent risk anytime people use the internet. 

"It’s our virtual infrastructure," he says. "Just like highways you need your cops and your lanes properly indicated and other [safeguards]. But just because we build out this virtual highway doesn’t mean accidents won’t happen."

While Reneker also puts the onus to practice internet safety on users, he says broadband providers will provide guidance on basic levels of online security.

"Broadband providers may give you a modem or device and they tell you how to set up encryption on it so it's not accessible by others," he mentioned.

The city also hopes to publish best practices for internet safety including setting up antivirus software, firewalls and other devices to "ward off cyber intrusions."

While the maintenance work on the network will be left up to the service provider, Blumenfield is not worried over the potential performance of a fiber optic setup.

"You’ve either got fiber or you don’t," Blumenfield said.

"Pretty much," agreed Reneker.

Fiber may be more cut and dry, but no one should expect a high-speed connection for free. In 2006, Verizon sued the city of Philadelphia, one of the first cities to offer municipal Wi-Fi, on the grounds of displacing competition by offering a free broadband service. The State of Pennsylvania sided with Verizon ruling that municipalities cannot offer a free internet service with speeds that compete with that of paid services.

"It think it's reasonable to expect that what the city will try to negotiate is something half the speed of what the lowest speed paid service is," Reneker said.

To quell concerns over competition, the RFP also includes writing that requires the contracted company to sell access to the city’s infrastructure in wholesale to its competitors, according to the councilman.

The initiative will also stimulate economic growth in the city by providing businesses affordable broadband and enticing other businesses to locate to Los Angeles with the lure of affordable internet access, said Levin. That affordable access will also allow citizens to be more competitive, too.

 

Reach Staff Reporter Ben Kraus here.



 

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