On the agenda for tonight’s Decatur City Commission meeting, Asst. City Manager Andrea Arnold proposes significant changes to Decatur’s much discussed public wi-fi, which has been around since 2008.
In suggesting $165,000 worth of upgrades to the already obsolete network, Ms. Arnold suggests pulling out of residential neighborhoods, with upgrades limited to downtown Decatur, the Oakhurst business district, as well as Glenlake, McKoy and Oakhurst parks. As we know, single-family residential area wi-fi has been a big challenge for the service providers due primarily to our annoying tree-infested neighborhoods. (That’s my humorous description, not anyone else’s.)
Additionally, Ms. Arnold notes that Decatur has never provided free wi-fi access and suggests a one-year pilot program in the outdoor public spaces listed above.
Operational costs for the network will be around $24,000 – $5,000 of which would be provided by the Decatur Downtown Development Authority.
I think this is a smart move vis-a-vis residents (taxpayers!). I never could get Decatur Wifi to work at our house.
But I thought one of the benefits of citywide coverage was providing better in-car/truck IT for our police and fire departments. Have other newer wireless technologies (LTE, perhaps?) filled this need?
That’s a good question. I assume there are better technologies for such things.
I also wonder about the definition of “downtown Decatur”. Does that extend from the Post Office to Pure or is it a smaller area?
Yes, the D Block legislation in HR3630 will provide a private network LTE service for public safety and public works, but it is going to be awhile before it will be deployed (I would guess over a year).
I just don’t see much of a future with Wi-Fi because LTE has a bigger RF footprint and a lower cost to deploy due to its remote core and flat architecture.
True, but LTE uses spectrum that is licensed (and very expensive real estate), where WiFi does not. Not saying we should use wifi instead of LTE, just saying that there is a cost to all alternatives…
You do have a point there. But the nice thing about LTE is that it will allow you to roam from the public safety network to the celluar network and back again seamlessly. They do this by interconnecting the core to the celluar network.
But the big reason everyone wants it, is because the public safety LTE network is partly funded by the Feds. And it has massive bandwidth for uploading data so that video cams in cop cars can route live video to 911 centers. Cops want that very badly for their safety.
Wifi will still be around for awhile for the private citizen, but there is a big push to move public safety and public works off of it.
“tree infested neighborhoods”…. that’s funny!.. that could be the next DM t-shirt or the next Decatur motto!
We never talk about fun things like that anymore 🙁
I miss Gibbetts.
Chadly– He’s back among us (and he’s even on another thread)! :0)
Agree. I would buy a t-shirt that said, “I live in a tree-infested neighborhood.”
I think this is a great idea. The wi-fi has never really worked in residential neighborhoods so it makes sense to concentrate on business areas and other areas where people come in clusters and make it free.
This will be just one more thing that will make Decatur more attractive to visitors and business. Like it or not, it is frustrating when you go to a place and your phone data doesn’t work and there isn’t wifi available.
While I wouldn’t want to contradict the Assistant City Manager, I am almost certain that there was a 2-hour window of “free wi-fi access” with the original provider that I could never connect to on my iPod touch while in line at TDS. I was very surprised to see the $2.95 charge on the new provider that I could link to from there… But really, free access in Downtown Decatur and Oakhurst is definitely what we want and need! Isn’t the map you provided the access points of the old provider? I remember calling them to ask when the access point at Willow would be “live” and them telling me that it never would be because of the tree situation…
There was indeed a two hour free window. I used to use it all the time from downtown Decatur to check the Emory shuttle’s whereabouts.
Yes, but the free window was restricted bandwidth. I don’t believe there was ever any free access to the full service.
I agree with her plan. Unless you only preform tiny tasks like checking email, a citywide wifi is not reliable and/or strong enough to serve the average internet browser. Get your own dang wifi :)! But, for the people eating at a restaurant, or getting their haircut, etc, this will serve an excellent purpose.
Love the idea. Would like hear more about details of the implementation.
Well, as an “Indie-Catur” Wifi customer, this really irks me. If there’s going to be wifi service offered by the City, why should residents pick up the tab for businesses and downtown dwellers only? Seems like it should fall under the DBA’s resources if it’s going to be geared as a free ammenity to folks visiting the business districts only. It’s especially irritating when more and more of the City’s info is geared to online access. It seems they’d seek to make it easier for all households to be able to conveniently keep up to date. (Folks like me can’t afford to even out wifi expense by signing up for multi service deals. Cable got axed from my budget a long time ago and my home phone’s fixing to go too.)
Brightlan, the team now handling the City’s Wifi has done a far superior job over the former company. I braced myself for spottiness once the trees were in full foliage, and that’s not been the issue. Decatur Wifi almost always shows up on the providers list (it was almost always m.i.a. before). The glitchs seem to be related to needing to upgrade the existing equipment atop the MARTA station and adding a couple more pole thingies in some of the gaps. It was my understanding that Brightlan would be asking the City to do it after proving itself in this initial period. It’s a situation where Brightlan probably can’t show an existing customers list to make a case for continuing residential service, but if the City took the leap of faith to improve service citywide, basic needs customers would sign up. Of course they’d need to promote it via non internet ways too. Being able to brag about citywide wifi service sure would be a nice thing to add to our City’s list of kudos.
* Brightlan does have one very strange oddity I’ve never encountered before. Nice and helpful folks IF you can get them to respond. Most always, the help tkt — by phone or online–goes unacknowledged because there’s only about 4 of them handling All Things Brightlan. The Check Back for Updates service is rarely updated during an outage. When I emailed them with suggestions for improving the customer service aspect, I was told they don’t have $100k to hire customer service. Must be one of those living wage things. All I was asking for is a dang reply or fyi, and a couple of friendly folks at an hourly rate could surely handle that.
(Connor- Dude, you sure are making an impression on me w/ your recent comments.)
If you’re referring to my not caring about who pays for it, I’ll definitely agree that I’m 100% biased (since I don’t pay taxes), but from a stance of someone who does, I would agree that the taxpayers should not have to pay for something that a good percentage of them won’t use. Besides, the Decatur wifi is awful anyways…If you really want to travel with wifi, just buy a Clear box…may be more expensive but it’s loads faster
Connor, I appreciate you for looking at it from my “Dang! Look at this tax bill!” point of view! :0)
And I don’t find the current system lacking– it just needs tweaking! In fact I think it’s pretty darn good. I generally get good enough speeds to be able to watch Hulu without too much of a hiccup. (Yeah, only the PBS stuff. ahem.) I’m pretty sure that an upgrade to the equipment would totally fix things right up. ( I had about a 45 minute conversation with a Brightlan person last Fall. His enthusiasm for getting the system right sold me on their capabilities.)
(There’s only been one major fail in how they handled something. Other delays in service have just been annoying, and wouldn’t really even be that irksome if help tickets didn’t disappear into some big black hole.)
” If there’s going to be wifi service offered by the City, why should residents pick up the tab for businesses and downtown dwellers only? Seems like it should fall under the DBA’s resources if it’s going to be geared as a free ammenity to folks visiting the business districts only.” — Gotta say, I’m in total agreement here. I’d really like to see some evidence that we’ll get substantial ROI beyond a general belief that it will make Decatur more appealing, otherwise let DBA pick up a lot bigger piece of the tab. (Yes, I understand indirect benefits and the notion that a rising tide lifts all boats — but sometimes it seems my tax dollar is ALL about indirect benefits. Or nearly all, anyway.)
Bravo, I mean +1. Let’ em pick all of it up including the $164,000 upgrade. That “more appealing” benefit is not accepted at Kroger.
The other thing I’m not getting is what’s the point? I would think that just about every visitor wanting to access it while in the business districts and parks would be doing it using a fancy phone that already has wifi service, yes? Is this supposed to be an amenity for the folks who want to set up with their laptops somewhere for a couple of hours, or is it mostly to assist the business owners in their operations? All would be nice, but even more rewarding would be to maximize the opportunity to have free wifi for everyone to use anywhere. Here in Decatur Heights, there are 100 no frills rental households, as well as quite a few home owners who are having to pinch every penny.
Just imagine if Decatur did offer free wifi everywhere. We could start up a citywide program to match rehabbed donated computers to our seniors and also match volunteers to introduce them to online basics. (The library does a great job with classes, but can’t meet the demand.)THAT would make for a truly connected community in the most meaningful way!
I’m not sure of the point or value of this either. When out and about in Decatur, I make a point to turn my phone’s wifi OFF so I don’t connect to Decatur’s system, which it is too slow to be useful.
Are there that many people using their laptops or wifi-only tablets outside?
+1
I like the idea and would like to hear more about the plan. I would have loved free wifi while tabling at the GreenFest in Oakhurst earlier this summer (but that’s not the business district …).
Also, great t-shirt idea!