Just some chit chat on City WiFi replacement idea...

[red_dog007]

So my city has and still is deploying city wide WiFi.  It isn't public.  They use it most for law enforcement, fire department, and smart lights. 

 

So, in ideal conditions they mount a WiFi AP on a telephone pole every third pole.  Usually they are a lot closer.  Also, there are dead zones everywhere.  The city has dumped a few ten million into this project and it is still ongoing. 

 

Back in 2013 they spent 5yrs on the project and the Mayor decided to throw another $20million dollars at the failing project.  At the time they had almost 600 APs that were Wireless N.

 

No 5GHz has horrible coverage, and 2.4GHz is overcrowded.  You can go downtown, in a neighborhood, or an apartment complex and easily see 20~50 APs which hurts 2.4GHz performance, and dependability.

 

With all the 2.5GHz that Sprint has, and it being cellular (higher power, greater coverage) and lots more bandwidth, if my city is willing to dump tens of millions into a WiFi project it seems like a good opportunity for Sprint to get paid to deploy dense B41.

 

My city I am sure is not on any densification plans (Chattanooga), and if they were able to pull in deals from cities that would like to, have or are currently deploying WiFi, Sprint would do the normal macro B41 deployment but then have free money to go micro and pico.

 

Then Sprint includes x number of B41 devices for equipment and use of some given amount of spectrum for a period of time.  WiFi network costs money to maintain so Sprint would get money to maintain B41. 

 

Seems like a win-win to me. :-D

[greenbastard]

So my city has and still is deploying city wide WiFi. It isn't public. They use it most for law enforcement, fire department, and smart lights.

 

So, in ideal conditions they mount a WiFi AP on a telephone pole every third pole. Usually they are a lot closer. Also, there are dead zones everywhere. The city has dumped a few ten million into this project and it is still ongoing.

 

Back in 2013 they spent 5yrs on the project and the Mayor decided to throw another $20million dollars at the failing project. At the time they had almost 600 APs that were Wireless N.

 

No 5GHz has horrible coverage, and 2.4GHz is overcrowded. You can go downtown, in a neighborhood, or an apartment complex and easily see 20~50 APs which hurts 2.4GHz performance, and dependability.

 

With all the 2.5GHz that Sprint has, and it being cellular (higher power, greater coverage) and lots more bandwidth, if my city is willing to dump tens of millions into a WiFi project it seems like a good opportunity for Sprint to get paid to deploy dense B41.

 

My city I am sure is not on any densification plans (Chattanooga), and if they were able to pull in deals from cities that would like to, have or are currently deploying WiFi, Sprint would do the normal macro B41 deployment but then have free money to go micro and pico.

 

Then Sprint includes x number of B41 devices for equipment and use of some given amount of spectrum for a period of time. WiFi network costs money to maintain so Sprint would get money to maintain B41.

 

Seems like a win-win to me. :-D

Government fail at its finest.

 

 

I'd assume that officials within your city have realized they're already too deep into the project to just dump it. Ending their WiFi project would be an admission of wasted money, and since they all want to get reelected, they sure as hell don't want to admit that.

 

 

Partnering with a wireless provider for data access would never work. It makes too much sense and governments don't like that.

[cortney]

So my city has and still is deploying city wide WiFi.  It isn't public.  They use it most for law enforcement, fire department, and smart lights. 

  

 

Yuck, this is why I sometimes like wires. 

[supert0nes]

Weren't they supposed to build public safety networks using 700/800 LTE?  Sounds like a massive fail that should cost a few people their jobs.

[JossMan]

My local municipal ISP just completed a 2.4/5GHz WiFi network (BVU OptiZone) for the downtown area of the city as well as all the baseball fields and city parks, quite impressed with the range and quality of the network in the downtown area.

[lou99/maximus1987]

 it seems like a good opportunity for Sprint to get paid to deploy dense B41.

 

Seems like a win-win to me. :-D

If by win-win you mean "TMO lawyers, VZW lawyers and ATT lawyers will get paid to challenge this in court" then yes it's win-win-win.

If public money is spent then the public - not just sprint customers - should be able to access it.

 

Wasn't softb supposed to be giving Sprint money to deploy b41?

[bgguy]

Yeah our city has a similar Wifi project that is/has been completed for about 10 years.  I have heard people mention that it is costly to maintain and may be looking to switch to a cellular based solution soon.  I would think if 4G speed and low were the priority in town then Sprint would be the leader.  On the other hand the powers that be tend to think their coverage on their farm in BFE outside the city is more important.  Thus AT&T or Bluegrass Cellular would get it.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Yeah our city has a similar Wifi project that is/has been completed for about 10 years.  I have heard people mention that it is costly to maintain and may be looking to switch to a cellular based solution soon.  I would think if 4G speed and low were the priority in town then Sprint would be the leader.  On the other hand the powers that be tend to think their coverage on their farm in BFE outside the city is more important.  Thus AT&T or Bluegrass Cellular would get it.

There's already cellular coverage and if att or BG cell want to deploy small cells, they can and independently of any muni wifi.

[Deval]

If by win-win you mean "TMO lawyers, VZW lawyers and ATT lawyers will get paid to challenge this in court" then yes it's win-win-win.

If public money is spent then the public - not just sprint customers - should be able to access it.

 

Wasn't softb supposed to be giving Sprint money to deploy b41?

 

I would think Sprint would deploy WIFI+B41 equipment, so everyone would benefit.

 

Also, it's too bad Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile would rather spend their money on lawyers and not the customer greater good.

[lilotimz]

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Completely irrelevant posts removed....

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[red_dog007]

It isn't used for the public.  It is city wide wifi for the city only.  They only recently opened up a few locations for public wifi, which can still exist, and really isn't even needed. 

 

It would be no different than say a government agency having a contract to say install VZW antennas in their place of business because as a business they use VZW devices.  As a side effect, only those employees with personal VZW devices get access to the frequency.  You don't see lawsuits flying around everywhere. 

 

Sprint would do the same thing, but instead of at a building level, they do it at a city level and in turn probably save cities tons of money.  Normal Macro deployment with small micro and pico deployment where it is needed.  Im sure would heavily cut down on the required amount of wireless AP that WiFi requires for the same level of coverage on top of being more reliable, dependable, and much faster. 

[Deval]

Similar to what Sprint is doing for its home town: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-expected-help-provide-free-wi-fi-network-smart-city-project-kansas-c/2015-04-20