An outdoor public wireless network for the Internet – available at no charge to users – is currently being installed along Main Street from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to Canalside and Erie Basin Marina.
The first access point for the wireless system has already been installed and tested. The complete network is expected to be in place by the summer, enabling downtown workers, residents and visitors to connect to the Internet on laptops, smartphones and other mobile devices while outdoors.
With 30 access points, each with a range of about 250 feet, the network is designed to provide “near-contiguous” outdoor coverage along Main Street from North Street to the waterfront.
M&T Bank is leading the effort to engineer, purchase and install the wireless system. Also involved are the University at Buffalo, which is providing “fiber assets” for the network, as well as network engineering expertise; and the City of Buffalo, which is in the process of approving a franchise agreement with M&T for the network.
The project is being done at no expense to the city. However, Buffalo is allowing use of its infrastructure, including poles and roads. The three main partners – M&T, UB and the city – have been quietly planning the project for months.
“If downtown Buffalo is going to be a thriving engine of opportunity for all city residents, we must find ways to support the entrepreneurs who are driving technological advances and creating jobs,” Mayor Byron W. Brown said. “We are making another targeted investment to improve our city’s wireless infrastructure, moving us forward on the path to constant connectivity.”
“Outdoor Wi-Fi along Main Street will soon be available to more than 58,000 people who work downtown, along with the million-plus visitors we see each year, and will help people connect and enjoy Buffalo,” said M&T Chairman and CEO Robert G. Wilmers.
The project will be formally announced Tuesday by Brown, Wilmers and UB President Satish K. Tripathi.
“UB has been a leader in developing our regional fiber network,” Tripathi said. “We, as a university community, are excited to partner in the expansion of these Wi-Fi capabilities to enhance the experience of those who are working downtown, visiting our great city and enjoying the many cultural amenities present in our downtown corridor.”
For Buffalo, the public network is part of the city’s vision for a “21st century” downtown, where people come to work, play, and increasingly, to live.
In addition to the thousands who work in the city who can enjoy the free Wi-Fi while outside their offices, and thousands more who might may want to check their email while visiting the waterfront or while headed to a show or a sporting event, the Wi-Fi also can serve members of the growing downtown residential community when they are outside their apartment and condominium buildings.
In addition to M&T, UB and the City of Buffalo, National Grid is also involved in the wireless network project.
The project was described Monday as a concentration of hot spots using fiber that UB installed in the area years ago. The Wi-Fi can be offered free, said Kenneth M. Barnes, the city’s Management Information Systems, because it is using an existing fiber network.
While the project will make it possible to surf the net for free along downtown Main Street, there’s also a growing discussion in Buffalo and Erie County about creating a full-fledged municipal Wi-Fi network.
Unlike what is being made available downtown, such networks turn municipalities into Internet service providers, or even mini-utilities, offering Internet services at rates much lower than traditional carriers. Such networks can be costly for municipalities to create, but have been set up nonetheless with the intent of bridging the digital divide between rich and poor, and also to create competition with cable companies. In some cases, they also provide Internet service in underserved areas where private carriers will not go.
In Buffalo, Common Council Majority Leader Demone A. Smith of the Masten District, Delaware Council Member Michael J. LoCurto and North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. have been promoting the idea in recent months.
The topic was raised again at a Council caucus Monday.
Such municipal broadband can be expensive to create because of the capital cost to install a fiber network. Smith suggested that the city consider installing such lines whenever a road is being dug up for reconstruction. Public Works Commissioner Steven J. Stepniak, who attended the caucus, said Smith’s idea is worth considering.
At Erie County Hall, Legislator Patrick B. Burke, D-Buffalo, has established a study group to research municipal broadband in the county. A white paper released by the group says, “A municipal broadband network could be a vital asset to the economic growth of this region, by improving connectivity speeds between ourselves and other major metropolitan regions like Toronto and New York City, and increasing potential opportunities for businesses like data centers and technology startups that could flourish in our relatively lower cost region.”
Currently, 40 communities in 13 states have publicly owned networks, according to muninetworks.org.
©2015 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
