NYC Parks Department Releases Second Wi-Fi RFP

The New York City Parks Department earlier this week released an RFP (CWP-WiFi 2/06, email Slater Gray) for Wi-Fi service in 6 parks (most in Brooklyn, 1 in Manhattan). This RFP comes about 2 years after they released their first RFP, which offered Wi-Fi service in about 17 NYC Parks. The only respondent to the original RFP was Wi-Fi Salon, which has yet to make good on its promise to deploy all of these parks—Marshall Brown, the only Wi-Fi Salon employee as far as we can tell—has only deployed a network at The Battery. Plans for the rest of Wi-Fi Salon’s are currently on hold as Marshall tries to secure sponsors for his other parks, a process that has taken almost 2 years.

The new RFP gets some things right and some things wrong:

The Good:

• All network service must be free. This is a policy that NYCwireless has been promoting since we began, and it seems that the NYC Parks Department has finally caught on.

• Interference issues must be addressed. This is an FCC requirement, but its nice to see the Parks Department not overstepping its jurisdiction in this case.

  The Bad:

• The Parks Department is expecting some form of fee payment for the franchise.
• Each Park must receive a separate $700 application fee and proposal.
• The RFP doesn’t specify that service should be Wi-Fi. I can’t imagine that any company would deploy service using another wireless technology, but frankly the Parks Department is not representing the people of this city when they don’t include this as a requirement.
• There’s no minimum speed requirement, nor is there any indication that all internet service should be free. What’s to stop a company from offering free slow service and offering real wireless broadband only if you pay them?
• Coverage is required on park grounds only. Why not require that coverage be in the park and in the surrounding street and sidewalk areas as well? As more people use VOIP wireless phones, and public service sector users grow it only makes sense to build this network as far a d wide as possible.

• Companies have 10 business days to repair equipment. Granted, if you are selling advertisement, you should have enough incentive to keep the network running 24/7, but 10 days? Any internet or broadband company that could have 10 business days (1/2 a month) to repair equipment would be out of business almost immediately. How about putting some teeth in this service contract.

  That the Parks Department is requiring a franchising fee is perhaps the most onerous requirement. They just don’t get it that free public Wi-Fi is an amenity within a park, just like grass, trees, and a bench. Its exactly this requirement that has shut out free Wi-Fi from being provided in more parks across the city. I’d suggest that all applicants offer to pay the park $0.

  ---