No Muni WiFi for NYC

Update: We've received the following info regarding the briefing tomorrow: The meeting will take place in the Committee of the Whole Room, City Hall, New York, NY on Wednesday, July 30that 11:00 am. This is a public meeting and all are welcome to attend. For further information please contact Kunal Malhotra, Director of Legislation & Budget, 212-788-6975 or Kunal.Malhotra@council.nyc.gov 

Matt Hamblen is reporting that a decision has been made here in NYC not to create a municipal WiFi network. Tomorrow a private consulting firm, Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, will present the results of their feasibility study.

From Computerworld:

While the consultant may offer a concrete plan for broadband in the city, Malhotra said it is already clear to the advisory committee that wireless networks won't be used. "We're not going to go the direction of a Minneapolis or Philadelphia in New York," Kunal Malhotra said in a telephone interview today. "We don't think municipal Wi-Fi will succeed."

Instead the idea would be to take a technology fund that already has $4 million from Verizon and push Time Warner Cable and Cablevision to each put in another $4 million. The idea is to help low-income NYC residents get affordable high-speed Internet access. Malhotra said they weren't so interested in the type of technology used (wired or wireless) but more importantly getting people access to computer training and job skills.

On a side note, can the wireless carriers please start to provide access on subway platforms? Not in the tunnels - I don't want 100 people in each car on the phone, but would love some access while waiting for the train. Considering that all stations have some easy path to light, can't they just drop some repeaters down the chute and flip a switch?!?!

Furthermore, isn't there a way to leverage the new bus shelters to become WiFi pods? C'mon NYC let's move forward here!