go ponca

Ponca City - Ahead of the Curve

04/18/10

Ahead of the curve: Ponca City sets Wi-Fi standard
By D. Ray Tuttle
The Journal Record
Posted: 09:40 PM Wednesday, March 17, 2010

TULSA - Ponca City isn't interested in the Google broadband initiative because it has been operating its own citywide wireless broadband network for 18 months.

The idea of setting up networks to beam wireless Internet access across entire cities and towns has been pushed for years as a spur to economic development.

It also has been promoted as a way to help bridge the so-called "digital divide" - that gap between those who have access to all the advantages of the Internet and other digital technology and those who don't, mainly because of lower income.

Ponca City bridged that gap, building a fiber network so large that the city offers Wi-Fi free of charge to residents. It pays for the service through sales to companies, casinos and nonprofits in the city. Revenues are about $36,000 a month or $423,000 annually, said Technology Services Director Craige Baird.

Wi-Fi is a trade name for a popular wireless technology used in home and mobile networks and electronic devices like laptops and iPhones to connect to the Internet or a private network, Baird said.

On any given day there are more than 5,800 "unique" hits on the Wi-Fi network, downloading 27 gigabytes of data per hour, Baird said.

"People are accessing 18 terabytes of data every month," he said. "That is a lot of traffic."

Baird said the speed hovers around 7 Mbps, "and occasionally we see users hit 12 Mbps."

Ponca City's wireless broadband project was built on the wireless meters and automated infrastructure that Honeywell Inc. installed for the city originally to reduce energy costs. That project saved the municipality about $1.3 million in annual operating costs, said City Manager Craig Stephenson.

Ponca City started installing fiber-optic cable in buildings in 1997 and over the past eight years systematically installed 150 miles of fiber-optic cable across the community, Baird said.

"We were allowed up to $100,000 for the first three years of installation," Baird said. "Our electric line crews installed it, so actual fund cost was kept down."

What sets Ponca City apart is that the city owns the fiber that provides the backbone for the network. It does not have to pay a third party for the connection.

"We paid for the system to be put in and it is one of the fastest in the world, certainly the country," Stephenson said.

Honeywell installed 490 nodes, while California-based Tropos Networks served as the designer and now provides maintenance for the 30-square-mile Wi-Fi network, Baird said.

"The network meets our requirements for public safety, as well as for the rest of our departments," Baird said.

Police officers use the citywide wireless network to connect to online databases and file reports from the field. Every city department uses the municipal wireless network.

"The benefits for public safety and city services were immediate," Stephenson said. "We had such a wide bandwidth and speed that we were able to offer to it to the public for free."

Clinton city officials are just a few of the dozens who visit Ponca City to study their operation, Stephenson said.

Clinton is looking at building a fiber-optic loop around the city, said Grayson Bottom, Clinton city manager.

"We are looking at it to see if it is worth the risk," he said.