AGENDA #5a

memorandum

to:                  Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager

from:            Bob Avery, Information Technology Director

subject:       Wireless Internet Services for Housing Neighborhoods

date:             February 25, 2008

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to respond to a petition submitted by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board.

BACKGROUND

On January 14, 2008 the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board presented a petition to the Town Council requesting the Town consider providing wireless internet services within the Town’s public housing neighborhoods to assist school age children. The petition noted the Town has implemented wireless services in the downtown area and requested that a similar process be applied in the housing neighborhoods.

The wireless Internet service in the downtown area is being conducted as a pilot project as authorized by the Town Council in June, 2008. Under this project, wireless hotspots have been placed in the downtown area to provide access to the Internet via Wi-Fi enabled devices. The pilot project included provisions to install up to ten hotspots. To date, six hotspots have been installed.

DISCUSSION

The Town has twelve public housing neighborhoods with approximately 300 school age children. Three of the neighborhoods (South Estes, Trinity Court, and Airport Gardens) have Family Resource Centers operated by the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project. These centers provide a number of programs for families and children and have a small computer lab with access to the school systems Connect 2 School portal for remote access to educational programs.

We have conducted an on-site check of the housing neighborhoods to evaluate our ability to establish wireless hotspots similar to those installed in the downtown area. The following is a summary of the findings of these checks:

• The objective of providing wireless Internet access for housing residents is a more difficult project than the one conducted in the downtown area because of the need for the wireless signal to penetrate into the residential units. (Most students would be using desktop computers in their homes.)
• The most suitable location for hotspot installation is the exterior side of the housing unit buildings. There are sufficient locations to do this in a manner that should provide a usable signal for a number of residential units. Chosen locations would be based on providing a signal for the maximum number of students.
• There are no exterior electrical power facilities that can be immediately used to power the hotspots. We will require services from Duke Energy to gain electrical services that are not associated with residential unit services.
• A single hotspot in each housing neighborhood will not likely provide a signal strong enough to reach all residential units. Two or three hotspots would be needed in each neighborhood to accomplish complete coverage.
• There are a number of wireless devices already operating in the neighborhoods that could affect the reception for a Town provided source. In most cases, careful selection of the Wi-Fi channel (or radio frequency) can minimize this affect.
• The three Family Resource Centers sites have an existing wireless hotspot that provides a limited range of Wi-Fi signal that could be extended through the use of a different antenna. We have contacted Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, Inc. to examine the possibility of extending the reach of their wireless signal. Even if that is possible, the coverage would not provide coverage for the entire housing neighborhood

The six hotspots installed in the downtown area for the pilot project provide sufficient coverage to evaluate the feasibility of Town provided Wi-Fi services in the downtown area. Using the remaining four hotspots that were envisioned in the pilot project to provide wireless services as a pilot test in the housing areas is reasonable. With that in mind, we propose the following next steps to do this.

• Coordinate with the staffs of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, and the Housing Department to identify the locations in the housing neighborhoods that would best serve as pilot hotspot locations. This coordination would include identifying optimum locations to serve the maximum number of students that have the in-home resources (computers and wireless connection capability) to benefit from such a program.
• Coordinate with the Chapel-Hill Training-Outreach Project staff to determine their capability to expand the coverage of the wireless hotspots used at the Family Resource Centers.
• Investigate cost and installation options for providing electrical service outlets that can power the hotspots.
•  Investigate optimum wireless hotspot devices to determine which ones can provide the best indoor signal strength and can be installed at a cost that is within the scope of the pilot project
• Install up to four hotspots where feasible.

Based on an initial review of the housing neighborhoods, we believe the approach that can be accomplished quickest is to establish hotspots in the Craig-Gomains neighborhood and the South Estes neighborhood. The housing maintenance unit at 505 Craig Street can be used as a location to locate one hotspot immediately. At the South Estes neighborhood we can either place a wireless hotspot at the Family Resource Center or extend the range of the one being used by the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project. If power service connections can be provided at other suitable locations in these neighborhoods, we will move the hotspots or place an additional hotspot at a location that would provide the most effective signal coverage.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Using the basic steps as outlined above, we propose to install up to four hotspots in public housing neighborhoods with initial efforts to be focused on the Craig-Gomains and South Estes neighborhoods and with secondary focus on the Trinity Court and Airport Gardens neighborhoods.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (February 25, 2008)

1. Email from Mike Kelley [27 KB pdf]
2. Email from Mark Peters [31 KB pdf]