News

Philadelphia covers 135 square miles with WiFi - but is it legal?

They're sticking their necks out in Philly - aiming to reveal plans on February 7th which will give them the biggest single WiFi network in the world. At least, that's their claim, according to the city's chief information officer, Dianah Neff. And they think they have made it legal.

The plan echoes a two-year-old project announced by Westminster council in greater London, which appears to be stalled, and both will cause confusion in the city if they go live, by installing a public service on radio frequencies which are, theoretically, open for all to use privately.

An Associated Press report described the plans as a $10.5 million project, covering 135 square miles.

Details won't be available, even when Mayor John F. Street goes public in a February 7 press conference, because the actual implementation will be put up for tender in March. And until the successful tender is agreed, the technology remains undefined

Politically, the project could set precedents in America, because there is a widespread opinion that it should be illegal. The Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee "will formulate recommendations in several policy areas including fees, roles and responsibilities, extent of service, privacy and security. The Committee will identify possible legal and regulatory barriers and help develop strategies to overcome them," says the Mission Statement.

In the state of Pennsylvania as a whole, a moratorium has been created, but the city itself appears to have circumvented that. "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," reports David Worthington of BetaNews. "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."

His report says that Verizon's partnership in the plan could circumvent the Governor's legislation. However, it would seem inevitable that this will raise questions about how "open" the tender can be in March.

Huge WiFi networks are not simple to implement, and huge public ones are vulnerable to users with virus problems