"After careful review of the best direction and which partners could assist us with our vision to make Harlem a digital community, where all of its residents, businesses, and organizations could experience the power of connectivity, we felt that Civitium understood the historical importance of this project and has the experience and qualifications to help make it a reality," said Michael Lewis, Executive Director of Wireless Harlem, in a release.
For over 100 years, Harlem has long been known as a major African-American cultural and economic center. After many years of social and economic decline, it is now undergoing something of a social and economic rebirth. This new initiative to bring wireless broadband to Harlem was launched to capture this next phase of growth and development for Harlem's residents, businesses and organizations.
Civitium has already begun its initial work with Wireless Harlem, including site visits, attending community discussions and working with the city to answer questions about potential broadband deployment. Civitium's feasibility study will be available for download on Wireless Harlem's Web site.
"With Harlem's exceptionally high population density, typical six-story building height, and most importantly, Wireless Harlem's vision and strong community support, the area is ideal for a community wireless broadband network. Civitium looks forward to applying our expertise to such a visionary project," said Bailey White, Senior Partner at Civitium.
Harlem is located in upper Manhattan and has a population of more than 225,000 citizens, including seniors, young people, students and families. Civitium's feasibility study and subsequent work will answer such questions and provide suggestions on best ways to gain access to buildings and poles, free vs. low-cost access, digital inclusion, network policies, the ability to migrate to newer platforms in the future and answer questions about security and privacy.
Over the past several months, Wireless Harlem has been building a grassroots coalition of local political leaders, businesses and area organizations who are interested in empowering its residents and closing the digital divide that exists in Harlem. Wireless Harlem Initiative's goal is to be a model that can be replicated in other communities nationwide.
"The field of high technology is critical to progressive development, especially the development of our youth. In order for the Harlem community to remain globally competitive, we must have access to avenues of high technology and widely available information. I look forward to reviewing the feasibility study and supporting the ongoing developments of Wireless Harlem," said NYC Council Member Inez E. Dickens.
While recent statistics indicate that broadband penetration in the U.S. is increasing, the adoption rate is still painfully low in many communities of color, rural neighborhoods and low income areas, where incumbent service providers have yet to make these areas a priority. Municipal broadband networks, like the one being considered for Harlem, are cheaper to build and easier to widely deploy, and these savings are passed on to residents.
