Q-Life

Q-Life Unwired for Google’s Oregon Facility?

Posted by samc on August 1st, 2007

The Dalles, Oregon, which landed a big fish in Google, with the help of its downtown, locally funded fiber network, called Q-Life, is now considering adding WiFi to the mix, reports the The Dalles Cronicle.

No single entity can afford to drive a WiFi network, stressed Karl DeLyria of Metaskills Consulting during a July 24 Q-Life meeting.

Q-Life plans to explore WiFi options for the region, particularly in the downtown area. DeLyria said that successfully implementing a WiFi network requires a broad density of committed stakeholders. He has installed WiFi in Corvallis and Port Huron, Mich.

“You can’t just roll it in and turn the thing on,” DeLyria said. “It just doesn’t work.”

Prior to installation, a city must recruit a base of stakeholders who will contribute to the system in exchange for part of the revenue, he said. “There has to be enough going into it and managing infrastructure that everybody can take back out,” DeLyria said. “No single entity can afford to put it all in and expect people to come.”

He warned against an “If you build it, they will come” mentality, noting that MetroTime employed that line of thinking when they installed WiFi in Portland. They now have a 40 percent failure rate.

Hundreds of wireless “ghost towns” exist across the nation, DeLyria said, where service is installed, but a lack of money or support eventually causes the network to fall apart. Some of the stakeholders can actually be competitors to WiFi development, he noted. In Corvallis, he worked with broadband companies to fund WiFi. “Through the stakeholding process, each and every entity that’s involved in the community gains something back,” DeLyria said.

He recomended getting entities such as the water, sewer, or police involved since they do not require any bandwidth or affect network performance.

For example, WiFi would enable police officers to file reports from outside the office. In Washington County, public officials mapped out wireless hot spots where police officers and others could connect to the network. DeLyria said that WiFi typically costs $150,000-$200,000 per square mile to deploy. Annual recurring costs are normally $10,000-$12,000 per square mile.

source : dailywireless.org