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The first phase of Boston’s efforts to build and deploy a citywide wireless network is now underway. The work is being directed by a 23-member task force, which is chaired by Joyce Plotkin, president of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, Rick Burnes, co-founder and director of Charles River Ventures, and Jim Cash, retired professor, Harvard Business School. Mitch Adams, MTC’s executive director, is a member of the task force.

Mayor Menino’s Task Force has six working groups addressing everything from community outreach to ownership models.  The successful deployment of ubiquitous broadband access in Boston, as in other major metropolitan areas, hinges less on the technical design and more on the ability to create a convergence between the requirements of wholesale and retail markets.  The work is movingly rapidly with expectations that the final recommendations will be published in July.  All of this must be accomplished with an eye towards developing infrastructure, networks and business models predicated on the open standards that are capable of enabling access speeds at ten times current offerings across our economic landscape.  WiFi technology is an affordable means to ensuring truly affordable broadband assess.

Towards that end, a $150,000 award from the Innovation Institute, leveraging a $50,000 award from the Boston Foundation, will create the opportunity to spread the experience of the Boston Task Force throughout our Massachusetts communities.

At the meeting, members of the Governing Board will engage with the co-chairs of the task force in examining key questions – for Boston and the Commonwealth:

• What are the implications for existing telephony and broadband offerings now that municipal broadband efforts are catching fire across the nation?
• Will the City of Boston be able to synchronize its own marketplace demand for infrastructure, network and access with broadband suppliers and other major market makers?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of organizing around a municipal model?
• Will the Boston experience be transferable to other Massachusetts communities?
• Can we devise ownership and operational models that simultaneously guarantee access for all and trigger market rate offerings of higher speed access?

“The success factors for the Boston initiative include that there is access for everyone, it is affordable and sustainable, it provides a sound technological foundation, it has a carrier neutral transport, it is future-proof, and that there are no incremental costs to the city to build or manage the network,” said Steve Gag, who is coordinating work on the wireless network for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.  The Task Force Leaders will be with us on May 1st to help us imagine how the Commonwealth accelerates the shift into ubiquitous broadband for the Commonwealth.

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