LegalPolicy Challenges of the Municipal Wireless Networks

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• Legal/Policy Challenges of the Municipal Wireless
  Networks
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• CS 4235
• April 19, 2006
• Akshay Bhushan
• Frank Johnston
• Ram Lau
• Uri Mandelbaum

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Case I Philadelphia, PA
• Case II Corpus Christi, TX
• Case III New Orleans, LA
• Case IV Chicago, IL
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• Universal, affordable access for broadband
  technology by the year 2007.- President George
  W. Bush, 6/21/2004
• The Reality Only 20 of American households have
  access to broadband Internet of speeds greater
  than 200kbps (National Telecommunications
  Information Administration)
• Municipal wireless networks as a solution

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Trends

• Has Internet become a public good? Has it become
  a necessity in our daily lives?
• Municipal involvement and the blossoming
  municipal wireless networks
• Host of issues
• Information Security
• Liability
• Legislation

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Case Studies

• Four Case studies
• Philadelphia, PA
• Corpus Christi TX
• New Orleans, LA
• Chicago, IL
• Each city encountered its own problems, and
  different answers and solutions are needed to
  address them

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Case I Philadelphia, PA

• Wireless Philadelphia

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Background

• Wireless Philadelphia is a non-profit
  organization that was formed by the city
  government in 2004
• To create an affordable municipal wireless
  network run by the city government for citizens
• The Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee
  comprises the leaders of the public, private, and
  academic communities, among them are
• Dianah Neff, Chief Information Officer
• Mayors Office of Information Services
• Dr. James P. Gallagher, President
• University of Pennsylvania
• Peter Longstreth, President
• Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation

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House Bill 30 (H.B. 30)

• The municipal wireless proposal triggered
  knee-jerk reactions at the state legislature
• A languishing bill known as House Bill 30 (H.B.
  30) was passed within two months of the
  announcement of Wireless Philadelphia
• Section 3014(H) of the bill forbids any
  political subdivision of or entity created by a
  local government from providing any
  telecommunications service to the public for a
  fee

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EarthLink selected by Wireless Philadelphia

• An alternative was to offer the service through a
  private company that would sell it to the public
• EarthLink was selected by Wireless Philadelphia
  in Oct. 2005 to develop and implement the
  nations largest municipal Wi-Fi broadband
  network
• Under the terms of the proposal, no City or
  taxpayer dollars will be used to fund the project
  EarthLink will finance, build and manage the
  wireless network

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Information Security Concerns

• The public documents makes very few references to
  the information security of the network
• The more secure the network is, the more
  complicated the provisioning process can become.
  Open access in parks and public spaces should
  limit the provisioning requirement to
  confirmation of an acceptable use policy and
  disclaimer
• These public access points will make a paradise
  for hackers and spammers

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Legal/Policy Challenges

• The public documents also fail to address the
  legal and policy challenges that the city
  government will potentially face
• No clearly defined legal liability burdened on
  the city government, and the responsible legal
  entities in case of an information security
  breach
• No assurance that the city government is free
  from any potential lawsuits and legal charges for
  its involvement of the project

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Proposals and solutions

• Require all retail partners to authenticate their
  end users by assigning each customer a unique,
  temporary, and strong encryption key in order to
  enforce the WPA and WPA2 standards
• Provide secure client software to all users for
  free even users in public parks and community
  centers where they will charge no access fees
• The legal/policy concerns are expected to be
  addressed in the Terms and Conditions that the
  future users will sign as they subscribe to the
  broadband wireless Internet service

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Responses of the stakeholders

• EarthLink refused to provide any detail
  information regarding the project
• Variania Robinson, Director of Wireless
  Philadelphia who oversees the project for the
  Mayor's Office of Information Services
• The Committee of Technology and Information
  Services of the Philadelphia City Council

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Case II Corpus Christi, TX

• Corpus Christi WiFi

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Background

• Wireless Meter Reading
• Intels Digital Community
• Tropos and Pronto

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Legal/Policy Challenges

• Crowding Out Problem
• Vertical Asset Problem

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Security/Technical Challenges

• Security Liability
• Lightning Suppression

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Solutions Found

• Wholesaling bandwidth
• Routers placed in traffic control boxes

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Case III New Orleans, LA

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New Orleans Wi-Fi

• Originally a surveillance network
• Sole surviving network after Hurricane Katrina

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New Orleans Wi-Fi

• Modified to handle VoIP traffic and offer free
  Municipal Wireless Access downtown
• CIO Greg Meffert Wi-Fi instrumental to local
  economy
• Over a thousand visitors a day
• Population increase after storm 50,000 to 250,000

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New Orleans Wi-Fi Technology

• Built by Silicon Valley based company Tropos
  Networks
• Use of street-lights easy to install
• 20-25 units per square mile
• 512kbps connection 7 times the speed of dialup

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New Orleans Wi-Fi Legal Challenge

• Local Government Fair Competition Act 2004
• Serves to regulate the entry of local
  municipalities into the telecommunications
  business
• Advanced Services of speeds of 144kbps and
  above
• Overridden in state of emergency

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New Orleans Wi-Fi Legal Challenge

• Telecommunications Lobby BellSouth, Cox
  Communications
• Could stifle competition creation of a monopoly
• Potential loss of dial-up customers
• Free Wi-Fi just another offering

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New Orleans Wi-Fi Legal Challenge

• Florida Municipal Electric Association study
  municipal construction of communications
  networks expands the number of private firms
  serving the same market by more than 60.
• Telecom industry already a monopoly
• Subsidizing power

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States blocking Municipal Wi-Fi
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Current Legal Landscape

• Community Broadband Act of 2005
• The Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act
• Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005

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Case IV Chicago, IL
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Background

• Other major cities offer wireless
• Should be easy to set up
• Need to catch up
• Plan to franchise
• Friendlier approach
• Fewer required resources

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Information Security Concerns

• The numbers of internet users would grow
  substantially
• Sensitive information being transmitted
• Unsecured computers connected to the network

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Legal/Policy Challenges

• Illinois does not want city-offered Wi-Fi
• Businesses already offering wireless service
• Government-controlled network
• Connection speed
• Services
• Website content

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Proposals and solutions

• Pass legislation to allow city-offered wireless
• Franchise the wireless to the businesses
• Make users aware of any potential restrictions
  before they sign up for the service

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Conclusion
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Conclusion

• Municipal wireless networks face many challenges
• Case studies offer potential solutions
• Municipal Wireless is an infrastructure for the
  21st century

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Conclusion

• Introduction
• Case I Philadelphia, PA
• Case II Corpus Christi, TX
• Case III New Orleans, LA
• Case IV Chicago, IL
• Conclusion

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Questions and Comments