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SUMMARY
OF STATEMENT OF RON SEGE PRESIDENT AND CEO, TROPOS NETWORKS,
Before the NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL, COMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY
IN GOVERNMENT |
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Oversight:
Is Brooklyn Business Suffering from a Broadband Gap?
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January
10, 2005 |
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Thank you Councilwoman Brewer and Council
members. Tropos Networks is privileged to be here to testify
and we are excited at the interest from the Committee in closing
the broadband gap in Brooklyn and New York City. |
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Tropos Networks provides metro-scale Wi-Fi
and WiMax mesh products that greatly expands broadband access
using low-cost wireless technology. We provided the equipment
for Philadelphia’s network that Dianah Neff spoke so eloquently
about earlier this afternoon. Our products make it much more
affordable to more people, offering DSL speeds for as little
as $16 per month, unsubsidized by city funds. Metro-scale mesh
networks can be installed for as little as $30,000 per square
mile, for complete on-the-street coverage. |
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Metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh takes advantage of
the most popular broadband radio technology in the world, with
more than 100 million radios used in a wide variety of devices
from laptops to PDAs, security cameras, parking meters, traffic
control systems and cellular phones. A metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh
network can be installed very rapidly with each installer able
to deploy 1 square mile per day. This means that all of Brooklyn
can be deployed in as little as 3 months. |
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We currently have more than 125 municipal customers here in the US deploying large-scale Wi-Fi/WiMAX mesh networks, including Philadelphia, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, Miami Beach, Corpus Christi and Chaska, MN. These customers are using our networks for a wide variety of uses, therefore spreading the costs of one physical network among many constituencies to: arm first responders with needed information such as real-time geographic data, reduce crime rates through enhanced video surveillance, address digital divide issues with at-home and in-community access to low-cost broadband and to provide nomadic access to a wide variety of municipal databases and applications for city workers. |
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What started as Internet access in coffee
shops, frequently called Wi-Fi, is now expanding to whole communities.
With whole-city wireless broadband you get nomadicity – the ability
to travel with your laptop or other device and connect to the
Internet wherever you are. And it is just not email, it is the
range of broadband services, including video and low-cost Internet
calling. This makes businesses and municipal workers more productive.
This is why major cities in the US, such as Dallas, Houston,
San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis and Dayton are committed
to trialing or deploying municipal Wi-Fi/WiMAX systems in 2005.
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Tropos networks allow any laptop, computer
or other device with a communications chip to send a message,
a photo, a video, or a blueprint over the air to an antenna,
or Wi-Fi cell, in a box about as big as a breadbox. The Wi-Fi
cell can be on a streetlamp pole, a building, telephone pole
or in a vehicle for mobile use. Signals travel through the mesh
from one such cell to another. Eventually they hit a point where
Internet messages are consolidated and transferred to the wire
and the communication is on its way. |
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What we achieve is a very high transmission
speed, 1-5 Mbps, at low cost in construction and operation.
Operating costs can be as low as $6 per month, which enables
profitable operation at consumer prices much lower than today’s
other broadband technologies. These cost savings result from
the inherent character of the technology, it is able to route
around interference, and because extensive construction is not
needed. We are leveraging the fact that every laptop and many
other devices such as cameras and even cell phones now have
very low-cost Wi-Fi radios installed as standard equipment.
We leverage the huge volumes, massive investment and low cost
of Wi-Fi today and later of WiMAX. |
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Our distributed mesh technology provides
the reliability, security, and redundancy that are the foundation
of government communications systems, critical in this era of
heightened national and local security. It is many steps forward
from Internet access or messaging in coffee shops. |
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Some examples of applications include: Chaska providing $16/month service to every one of their 10,000 homes. They ensure a connection to the community by requiring that every citizen using the service visit the Chaska.net home page once/day for community information. The system was fully installed, by the city manager, for less than the cost of one house in the city. Within 2 months of offering the service, 25% of the city’s households have signed up for the service, despite the availability of traditional alternatives; the citizens like it. Corpus Christi making city workers more productive by automating tasks such as electric meter reading and parking meter enforcement. Oklahoma City is providing broadband access to crime and geographic databases to every police and fire vehicle in the 400 square mile footprint of the city. Philadelphia is using their system in a true multi-use fashion to address digital divide issues, improve public safety, increase the availability of low-cost broadband throughout the city and accelerate economic development. |
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Wireless broadband does not require digging
up the streets. It requires no new towers. The entire buildout
does not have to be completed before it can commence. Cities
can “pay as you go” for these networks. It can be
easily modified to meet changing requirements. These systems
can be started small and growth. Philadelphia started with a
small system in Love Park, and now has extended the network
to 4 areas of the city, providing service over several square
miles. |
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What wireless broadband does need is a street
light, utility pole or traffic light. And it is here where City
government commitment and action is critical. Ensuring that
there is fair, low-cost access to these structures will do much
to bring broadband to the citizens and businesses of a community.
The higher the price of renting these structures, the higher
the end-user price for service. |
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Bringing pervasive low-cost Internet broadband
access to Brooklyn, and to the rest of New York City, to its
citizens and businesses, will make a tangible difference. It
will bring innovation and education, expand opportunity, make
people safer and improve government services. And the reason
it can be done now is that metro-scale Wi-Fi and WiMAX broadband
mesh makes it much more affordable. It can be done quickly and
inexpensively, and it can be done starting today. |
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In closing, let me reiterate the Committee’s
vision in comprehending the great value in broadening access
to wireless broadband. Low-cost wireless broadband can be available
to millions more people, efficiently and effectively. Connecting
everyone to each other and to the knowledge of the world will
enhance the lives of many. |
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Thank you, council members. This completes
my summary. |
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