AGENDA #5c
to: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
from: Bob Avery, Information Technology Director
subject: Wireless Internet Services for Southern Village
date: April 28, 2008
The purpose of this report is to respond to a petition from the Southern Village Homeowners Association requesting Town Wi-Fi services in the Southern Village Market Street area.
On March 3, 2008, the Southern Village Homeowners Association presented a petition to the Town Council requesting the Town consider providing wireless Internet services in the Southern Village Market Street area. The petition noted the Town has implemented wireless services in the downtown area and requested that a similar process be applied in the Southern Village.
The wireless Internet service in the downtown area is being conducted as a pilot project as authorized by the Town Council in June, 2007. 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. On February 25, 2008, the pilot program was revised to place four hotspots in public housing neighborhoods. To date, six hotspots have been installed in the downtown area, two have been installed in housing neighborhoods, and two are in the process of being installed in housing neighborhoods.
Southern Village includes residential, commercial, and recreational areas with Town owned property limited primarily to two sites: the Southern Park and Ride Lot located near the Market Street area, and the Southern Community Park which is currently under development.
The Park and Ride Lot was considered as a possible site for a hotspot as part of the Town’s Wi-Fi pilot project, but was not used because of the estimated costs to mount and power the hotspot at that location. This location would also have limited the Wi-Fi signal usage to those people waiting at the Park and Ride site bus stop because nearby buildings would have reduced the reach of the wireless signal.
The Market Street area of Southern Village does represent a good area for public Wi-Fi service because it has a large unobstructed public area as well as sidewalk sitting areas both public and commercial. A hotspot located near the center of the open area would provide a useful signal for most of the public area. There is an outdoor stage that is used for many public events that has electrical power and suitable facilities for mounting the small amount of equipment that would be needed. Using this location for a hotspot would require an agreement with the property owner as the Town does not have access rights to any of the necessary facilities and the closest Town property, the Park and Ride Lot does not have any suitable locations to project a signal into the Southern Village Market Street area.
One concern regarding the proposal is the number of existing wireless devices already in use in the Market Street area. A recent survey found roughly fifty Wi-Fi devices competing for the wireless signal band. Although most of these devices are secured to prevent unauthorized use, several are already open to public access. We have not attempted to determine whether the device owners’ have intended to provide public access, nor have we determined whether these open devices are available outside of business hours. The signal strength for most of these devices is limited and would likely not interfere with a Town Wi-Fi effort. In a similar manner, the signal strength from a Town Wi-Fi hotspot would not likely interfere with any business or home hotspots.
A second concern is that with the limited Town-owned locations for hosting a site within Southern Village, considerable staff time would be required to evaluate and prepare a proposal for installing one.
With the above considerations in mind, we met with a member of the Southern Village Homeowners Association staff to discuss options. We looked at two different locations: the open area in the Market Street area and the soccer/swimming/tennis recreation area west of Market Street. The Market Street location is central but requires more site work to secure and power the hotspot. The recreation area provides an indoor mounting option that would allow a quicker installation. The Homeowners Association would like to host the site and is willing to cover the monthly service fee for Internet access. Town staff would provide the equipment, expertise, and work with the Homeowners Association to install and activate the hotspot.
We propose to work with the Southern Village Homeowners Association staff to provide equipment and expertise to install a hotspot in the Southern Village area. The Homeowners Association will accomplish any work on private property to accommodate the installation and will pay the monthly Internet service connection charges for the hotspot.