Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Gotham Gazette - "The Office of the Future Today"

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 17:15:58 -0500

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20031110/200/672

The Office of the Future Today
by Laura Forlano
November 11, 2003

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently took on a problem that annoys a 
growing number of New Yorkers. Many new cell phones take photographs, 
offer games and play music, but do not make calls -- at least not in 
numerous places throughout the city. "Cell phone 'dead spots' are 
frustrating and too common," the mayor announced. The city's solution: 
When New Yorkers find these dead spot zones, they should dial 311 to 
report them. And then what? "This program will undoubtedly help the 
industry improve service and help consumers make more informed 
purchasing decisions," the mayor said.

And this in a nutshell is the dilemma facing the city. If New York has 
its most tech-savvy mayor ever -- an entrepreneur who made billions 
providing technology to businesses and whose pet projects at City Hall 
include tech innovations such as the 311 telephone number for 
non-emergencies -- one public official can only do so much. The city 
has so far been better at identifying local tech problems than in 
solving them.

But these problems, some say, are more than just an inconvenience; 
solving them is essential if New York City is to remain a capital of 
communications and commerce. Will the typical New York City workplace 
of the 21st century be like the graceful high-tech offices of Steven 
Spielberg's movie "Minority Report," where Tom Cruise waves his hands 
in the air and is instantly connected to an information superhighway? 
Or will it be more like Terry Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil," where a 
house fly can plunge the whole makeshift technology and 
telecommunications system into chaos?

WHAT TODAY'S OFFICES NEED

The August 14, 2003, blackout dramatized many of the flaws in New 
York's communications systems. The Internet was useless. Cell phone 
providers could not handle the increased demand for calls and, as the 
blackout continued, service deteriorated further. Many office phone 
systems, dependent upon electricity, also failed to function.

But it does not take an extraordinary event like a blackout to point 
out the problems that businesses face. According to a report by the 
Center for an Urban Future, New York has become "one of the worst 
environments for entrepreneurs and growing firms," ranking at the 
bottom of national lists. One reason for this is its poor 
telecommunications technology. Meanwhile, advances in technology that 
enable people to "telecommute" and easily work with people hundreds of 
miles away make it less essential for many businesses to stay in New 
York. Experts agree that faced with such challenges, New York will lose 
businesses, jobs and money if things don't change.

Of course, the office of the future does exist right now in New York. 
Employees in many offices communicate almost entirely by computer, 
e-mailing colleagues, customers and contractors around the world, and 
checking stock prices, political trends and industry data on the 
Internet. Large businesses host their own Web sites, set up wireless 
networks in their offices, use voice-over-Internet technologies to cut 
phone costs and hold online conferences. Orders come in over the 
Internet, and customers track the status of shipments by computer.

An increasing number of people spend much of their business day away 
from a traditional office, working on portable devices such as laptops, 
personal digital assistants and cell phones. A salesperson may visit a 
client and then e-mail a report on the meeting while sitting in a 
nearby cafe or park. An electrician at a building site needs to check 
on the availability of a part; the site has no phone service yet, 
making him completely dependent on his cell phone. Every day, people 
need to connect to files, programs, databases and the Internet from 
their apartments, their local park or even Yankee Stadium.

Such new technologies increase efficiency and cut costs. But many 
businesses outside midtown and lower Manhattan cannot take advantage of 
them, because of aging or outmoded wires and cables, or because they 
simply are not available anywhere but the two major business districts.

HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS

Just about anyone with a telephone and a computer can get access to the 
Internet. But, as anyone who uses a dial-up system at home knows, 
access can be painfully slow and tie up telephone lines.

That is why many businesses are looking to "broadband," which is a 
high-speed connection to the Internet such as a digital subscriber line 
or DSL (which uses the phone lines), or cable-modem (which sometimes 
shares the wire used for cable television). Unlike dial-up, broadband 
is always on, so there is no connecting and disconnecting.

Any business that makes or takes orders for merchandise can benefit 
from broadband. Conducting such transactions by dial-up Internet or 
telephone can be slow and frustrating as screens can freeze and 
information can be lost.

"Broadband is critical for economic development and small business 
growth across the board, not just in high-tech industries," says 
Jonathan Bowles, research director at the Center for an Urban Future, 
who has been interviewing small businesses on the importance of 
broadband for a report to be released next month.

The problem is that broadband is not widely available in the city 
outside of midtown and lower Manhattan.

For example, cable DSL and cable modem are extremely difficult to get 
in Brooklyn, largely because providers consider it a low income area, 
City Councilmember Gale Brewer, chair of the council's technology 
committee, told Wireless Review this summer. "A year ago, a senior 
citizen center with a multimillion-dollar budget wanted to put in 
broadband, but no one wanted to go there," Brewer said. "I've worked in 
a lot of low-income areas in New York City, and private companies 
always think there's no marketplace there. We have to get this to go 
beyond the central business district."

Experts claim that if broadband were made available in just 50 percent 
of the city, it could bring in an extra $15 billion to the New York 
economy over the next 25 years. Providing service to 94 percent of New 
Yorkers could bring in $80 billion.

The lack of broadband places a heavy burden on many nonprofit groups, 
says Kayza Kleinman, director of the Nonprofit Helpdesk at the Jewish 
Community Council of Greater Coney Island. Government regulations 
require that many social service agencies provide services and 
information online, something difficult to do without high speed 
Internet access. As a result, many struggling organizations have felt 
forced to wire their buildings themselves, at a cost they cannot 
afford. And those are the ones lucky enough to be in an area where such 
wiring is possible.

Simply providing high speed Internet access is only the beginning. Even 
when service is available, some small businesses and nonprofits cannot 
afford it. While prices for most telecommunication services have been 
falling, broadband prices have gone up. Many organizations pay at least 
$400 per month so that a number of computers can be online at the same 
time.

The relatively high price is due largely to a lack of competition. 
While there are 18 broadband providers other than Verizon, most of them 
must lease the wires from Verizon and thus have to pay Verizon for 
access.

And there are different types of broadband. While all may be high 
speed, exactly how fast one can send and receive information may vary. 
Such differences present particular problems for companies that want to 
host Web sites and e-commerce platforms. "All broadband is not equal," 
says Joe Plotkin of Bway, a New York-based Internet-service provider 
that provides symmetrical broadband.

FIBER OPTICS

There are two ways for telephone companies, such as Verizon, to make 
high-speed Internet more readily available. They can replace the copper 
wires that currently run under much of New York City, with newer ones 
that are better able to handle massive amounts of information. Or they 
can upgrade to fiber optics. These cables -- strands of glass about the 
size of a human hair that transmit light signals -- allow Internet 
connections that are four times faster than broadband and could be ten 
times faster in the future.

But 87 percent of the city's fiber optic cables are in Manhattan 
business districts below 59th Street. One obstacle to expanding their 
reach is money. Fiber optics cost as much as $40,000 per mile to 
install, while wireless costs a tenth as much, according to one study.

HOTSPOTS

It is a truism of work in the 21st century that many people must be 
accessible around the clock -- in the office or away -- and so rely on 
being able to use cell phones and laptop computers wherever they might 
be.

Key to this are "hotspots" that provide a wireless Internet connection 
people can use with their laptops, personal digital assistants and 
other devices over the airwaves. Wireless, which is comparatively cheap 
to set up, can bridge gaps between other services. Currently, there are 
hundreds of free hot spots in business and residential areas of 
Manhattan as well as in the outer boroughs. (See map.)

The non-profit group NYCwireless has joined with economic development 
groups and parks organizations to provide free Internet access in 
places such as Bryant Park and lower Manhattan. Verizon offers wireless 
to their paid broadband customers at telephone booths, and T-mobile 
connects Starbucks customers for a monthly fee.

The city hopes to create schools, libraries and other government 
buildings as wireless hotspots. But wireless is still on the cutting 
edge. Many people do not know that wireless sites are available, and 
most small businesses have not yet begun to explore how wireless can 
help them. And even though wireless is spreading here, it is still not 
as popular in New York as it is in places such as Portland, Oregon, and 
Orange County, California.

PLANNING FOR THE HIGH-TECH FUTURE

While there is widespread agreement on at least some of the technology 
the city will need for its economy to thrive in the coming decades, 
less agreement exists on how to achieve it. Much of the controversy 
involves who should pay for the improvements.

Many believe that upgrading the city's wires and cables is the job of 
private companies such as Verizon, Con Edison, Time Warner Cable and 
Cablevision that profit from providing such services. As it stands now, 
the companies do shoulder most of the cost and make only those 
improvements they feel are worthwhile for them. For example, to justify 
the cost of installing new cable, Verizon must believe that it will 
gain a significant increase in business once the cables are installed.

Others say the need for fiber optics and other improvements is so 
crucial to the general well being of the city that it cannot be left to 
the private sector alone.

In May 2003, the City Council published a report, "Network NYC" (in pdf 
format) which laid out a proposed long-range telecom strategy. Many of 
the report's recommendations involve increased planning and analysis of 
the city's telecommunications needs by the Department of Information 
Technology and Telecommunications.

But the report also called on the city to use its economic clout as a 
major purchaser of telecommunications services to get improvements in 
service. New York City spends over $130 million annually on 
telecommunications, primarily telephone and Internet, more than any 
other city in the country. At least 75 percent of that goes to Verizon 
- with no competitive bidding. The report and the city comptroller have 
questioned whether the city should solicit competing bids to cut costs 
and perhaps exert influence on Verizon. (The company could not be 
reached for comment.)

The report also urges the city to make better use of existing 
technology. For example, it notes, the city manages franchises with a 
number of fiber optics companies and controls rooftops through New York 
that could be used for wireless. Yet, despite this, it says, "there has 
been little public discussion or long term strategic thinking about how 
the city could better organize this public and private infrastructure 
to encourage a truly citywide deployment of affordable, high speed 
networking capacity."

Because laying new fiber optic cable is so expensive, Councilmember 
Brewer recommends using existing fiber optics - either lines already 
owned by the city or leased from other owners - and combining them with 
wireless to create a network linking every borough but Staten Island. 
Brewer sees such a network helping small companies and non profits that 
cannot afford $400 to $1,200 a month to get high-speed Internet access 
from Verizon.

Another possibility involves taking old systems and putting them to new 
uses. The city explored the possibility of putting telecommunications 
equipment, including fiber optics, in space occupied by unused water 
pipes.

Some fiber optic cables -- called dark fiber -- were installed in the 
ground during the high tech boom of the 1990s. But they were then 
abandoned as dot.coms went bankrupt. Providing new cable to link to 
this unused dark fiber could be a lower-cost way of bringing fiber 
optics to at least some parts of the city.

As appealing as some of these ideas are, any solution is bound to be 
for the short-term only. In the 21st century, technology often becomes 
outmoded before many of us ever get to use it. And so fiber optics, 
broadband and hot spots could all soon be eclipsed by better, cheaper 
technology that has not been developed yet.

But whatever the actual technology, New York will have to stay on top 
of it. And that requires a vision, a plan and a way to put it into 
action.

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