CEDX

Muni Wireless In Action on Long Island

The Town of Smithtown on Long Island is saving $5000 per month by converting to a combination wireless and VPN network for their intra and internet needs.  We performed this installation partnered with NPA Computers of Holbrook, NY.  A logical diagram of the connections is shown here. The network that we created for them replaces a hub and spoke Frame Relay net that couldn't support their current need for internet access at each of the town offices, and the increased intranet bandwidth required by new applications and internal files.  In downtown Smithtown, we created a wireless intranet by using 20 Megabit/sec 5.8 GHz Motorola Canopy Backhaul links between the Town's main data center and several other buildings.  Somewhat ironically, we had to mount one of the Canopy units on an existing radio tower to get over the Verizon central office that stands in between two of the buildings.  Each location has Business Class Optimum Online from Cablevision, which provides between 5 and 10 Megabits download capability and 1 meg upload.  In the Town Campus, we also use the BCOOL links for a set of tunnels that backup the wireless, so that if a lightning strike takes out a link, the system fails over to the VPN tunnel, and reverts back to the higher capacity link when the link is fixed.  We get about 5ms latency on the Canopy links, and 35-40 ms latency on the VPN links.

Wi-RAN and VideoEgg posting

I posted this video a long time ago, but for folks to watch it while it started to  download, I would have had to purchase QuicktimePro so that I could change the file format.  This new feature from VideoEgg and SixApart allows me to take that same file and just load it, getting the same effect.  VideoEgg is offering this service for free, right now, but says it may be advertising supported in the future.  Right now, it's supporting our advertising!  Kudos go to Greg Galant of Venturevoice for posting the interview with Mena, where I learned about it.

School Taxes out of Control?

At Friday's LIMBA meeting Frank J. Russo spoke on how school taxes on Long Island are out of control, and are the largest component of the homeowner's property tax bill.  He sees the problem as two-fold, total compensation of staff is too high, and voter turnout is very low. He introduced us to a relatively new organization,  Long Islanders For Educational Reform LIFER.  A (cheesy -editors note)  website can be found at www.lischooltax.com   I had expected a vitriolic screed ranting about how the educational system is broken and how we can save a ton of money by creating megadistricts.  I was pleasantly suprised by the sensible and moderated tone of his comments. Mr. Russo's stump speech is laden with staticstics, none of which I could verify, but they sound reasonable.

San Franscisco Wi-Fi Responses

Many thanks to Esme Vos of MuniWireless for pointing out that the responses to the San Franscisco citywide Wi-Fi cloud are posted on the web here.  I am currently poring over them, and finding that they are a treasure trove of competitive information, and I am amazed that so many companies have submitted incredibly narrow proposals that omit crucial components of a network.  It seems that many product companies have just thrown their set at the requirement and left the holes unfilled. 

My favorite paragraph so far is this one from the Google response.

C-SPAN Wireless ISP Nuggets

I was watching C-SPAN tonight, and they were showing a Senate Commerce Committee hearing from July of this year on the DTV transition.  Two of the witnesses testifying were Gene Kimmelman from Consumer's Union, and Michael Calabrese from the New America Foundation (NAF).  As a TV watcher, I could care less about how I watch what the big broadcasters put out, it's mostly dreck in my opinon. The only thing I really pay attention to on TV is hockey, which most people think is dreck. So, we're even, me and most people.

As a wireless ISP and broadband consumer, however, I was intently listening to, and passionate about their plea to the Commerce Committee to keep some of that analog TV spectrum in the 700 MHz range open for unlicensed communications, so that we could get a real third pipe into the home, ( and the car ) and have that pipe be accessible by small entrepreneurs like myself, instead of it being totally controlled by super-deep pocketed spectrum buyers.  The Wireless Future program at NAF looks like a good vehicle for making that happen.  I am not optimistic that it will happen, because our governments at most levels seem to be purchased by the large corporations that operate in this country, and I'm sure that they don't want this particular door to open.

An Entrepreneur with Kids

I had heard of Dick Costolo through my friend Greg Galant's Venturevoice blog, and I just stumbled upon his ( Dick's ) blog myself today.  It was great for some howls, and comforting to know that there are some entrepreneurs out there that are in the same situation, ( young kids, incredible stress, no sleep ) but are making it happen with a sense of humor.  I found the french fry episode hysterical.  I have two lovely young offspring destined to be attorneys ( 10 and 6 ).  The elder has a better diet than I do, she eats green bell peppers raw from the garden, and the other guy is a McDonald's freak.  Dick, please keep leavening the business with the lighter side of the home goings on, and thanks for the refreshment.

Oh, by the way, we bought a company

As the last few posts have indicated, it was a busy summer. One of the other things that happened besides deploying Wi-RAN on all 36 Hampton Jitney coaches, and getting a full season of Fire Island Wireless under our belts, was that we ( Mad Cow Wireless ) purchased UrbanHotspots.  Those of you that have been around the industry for a while may know that Urban Hotspots is what Joltage morphed into.  Our spots can be seen on this google map created by Jason Babcock.  Jason is our field guy and a super bright fellow, a graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), the same program that the Dodgeball guys came out of.  Eventually, all of the CEDX and Wi-RAN stationary hotspots will be rebranded under Urban Hotspots. Wi-RAN and Fire Island Wireless subscribers will have no-additional cost roaming privileges to the Urban Hotspots footprint.