Earthlink's statement at NYC broadband hearing
Posted to the muniwireless.com blog
June 19, 2005
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Here's the presentation given by Brinton Young, Executive Vice President of Strategy for EarthLink, at the June 10 NYC broadband hearing. Last week I wrote that he offered to provide wireless broadband to New York for under $20 per month (1 Mbps). His statement also criticizes the city's light pole rental price:
"Good morning. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak to you today. My name is Brinton Young and I run strategy at EarthLink. I live in Pasadena California but I’m glad to be back in New York City. My mother is a Brooklyn girl. And I have many happy memories of vacations and Christmas in this city, the city that sets the world standard for excellence in so many of the arts and professions.
EarthLink is an ISP. Our mission is to connect people to the Internet, and to deliver the best possible Internet experience to them. Today EarthLink offers service to over 5 million subscribers through dialup, cable, DSL and satellite, as well as mobile wireless. We have over a million broadband customers and have won the JD Powers Customer Satisfaction award for three years. But we have a problem and it is a problem we share with America. Broadband is too expensive. Two monopolies control the last mile to the home, EarthLink can buy access to that last mile from them, but at a high price, too high for us to turn it into a retail service, offer it to the public at a great price and make a return.
Finding a cost effective third pipe to the home, to create level playing field for EarthLink to compete in broadband is our number one strategic challenge at EarthLink. For the last three years , we have done a lot of digging into the next generation of broadband technologies, digging in the form of trials, field tests, investments. There are many candidates – WiMax and other emerging wireless, broadband over electrical power lines, to name a couple of promising categories.
But today I want to focus on a particular approach to the last mile which I believe is ready to meet the need for affordable broadband access. It is Wi-Fi technology deployed in a mesh. The same Wi-Fi used for local networking and hot spots can be used to provide broadband to the home. In this system, Wi-Fi radios are be deployed on light poles in a grid throughout the city, spaced about 1200 feet apart. Internet traffic passes through this mesh into the home of the consumer. With the right equipment inside the customer’s home, it will deliver about 1 megabit per second downstream.
The power of this system is its low cost. It leverages the low cost of Wi-Fi chips, of which 50 million units are shipped annually in the US alone. It can be deployed for less than $25 per household passed. It doesn’t need outdoor antennae or professional installers. I have seen it working in Chaska, Minnesota where the service is offered for $15.95 a month and 30% of the town has signed up.
Here’s the point. Using this technology, we believe EarthLink can deliver 1 mbps broadband for a retail price under $20. We are prepared to work with the city to make that happen.
Here’s the catch. We need access to the light poles. The economic model does not work with pole rentals of $60 per month, much less $250 per month, when the electricity usage costs less than a $1. In order to enable this low cost technology, the city needs to make its light poles available for a couple of dollars a month.
Does the density of NYC present challenges? Of course. Are there technical issues still to be addressed and tested before we would be confident enough to build out the whole city? Of course, but we, together with our equipment partners, are working on them. Would a phased rollout be prudent? Yes, we think so.
Is it important for kids to have broadband? Of course it is. My 11- and 12-year-old girls use it every night for their homework. Should government care about universal broadband access? Both Presidential candidates in the last election thought it was important. Does that mean the city of New York has to get in the business of building and running networks? No, it does not, but the city can facilitate the deployment of those networks by partnering with the private sector. EarthLink is prepared to be that partner."
Technorati Tags: citywide Wi-Fi, municipal wi-fi, municipal wireless
Posted by Muniwireless June 19, 2005
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