Unplugging NYC

[sUnShInE]

New York City plans to build a wireless network of unmatched scale and scope, including the capacity to send and recieve data while traveling at speeds of up to 70 mph.


The City's commissioner of the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Gino Menchini, described the planned network as "the most challenging and most comprehensive" wireless project that he's aware of -- an assertion that was backed up by vendors that have seen the request for proposals (RFP) issued by the city.

"No one has ever attempted this before on such a scale," said Roger Skidmore, vice president and chief product officer at Austin-based Wireless Valley Communications Inc., which sells software for designing and managing wireless systems.

In fact, some vendors have asked whether New York would scale back some of its requirements, such as a mandate to support 2Mbit/sec. data rates and streaming video from thousands of users simultaneously. But But city officials rejected the requests in written responses. The RFP is "demanding and aggressive," Menchini said, but he believes that its requirements can be met.

Bids from vendors are due by July 21, and Menchini said he expects to award contracts for three-month pilot projects to multiple bidders by year's end. The final contract is expected to cover five years, with options for two five-year renewals.

Plans call for the wireless network to initially support up to 5,000 end-users and then be expanded. The RFP doesn't specify a rollout date, but Menchini said he wants installation of the network to start "as soon as possible."

Read more at Computer World.

[Zire]

That's good news...I wonder what the cost would be.