And there was an issue from earlier about indoor access. Does that require additional equipment?
Not necessarily. We anticipate that with the current equipment that exists today you will be able to access our network. We are encouraging our customers, the EarthLink retail customers, to get a device. It's the little black device on the desk over there with the antenna. The reason we are requiring -- we are asking our customers to get that device is because of two things: It will have software on it that encrypts the connection for the customer between their computer and the nodes or the network. It will have their user name and password 162 already logged into it so that they can stay continuously on the network, but it is not required.
And what's the monthly price for current EarthLink customers?
We have multiple products that we sell around the country. Our premium dial-up account today costs about $21.95. We also have a value dial-up through a subsidiary called people P.C. that averages between $10.95 and $15.95 depending on services that you get with it. And then, of course, we have broadband customers as well.
In our models we anticipate that we will be getting, if we are successful in the roll-out of this -- it really depends on the mix of EarthLink's retail customers versus the 163 wholesale customers. And we have multiple models that will be looking at this as well as additional services on top of it, but we anticipate after the third year to be somewhere between and 7 $18 million a year. 8
15 to 18 9 and Wireless Philadelphia gets 5 percent 10 of the gross or the net. 11
It's incorporated in that 15 to 18, but if EarthLink is a retail seller on the network, there will be three or four other network sellers as well, and we will contribute from the EarthLink retail accounts. And so if it's 30 percent or 40 percent or 50 percent of the access revenue, Wireless Philadelphia will get the percentage of that revenue.
As you were 164 kind of cascading down, you lost me a little bit. So let's go back. percent 4 of your retail sale -- 5
There is a formula, so let me ask -- Derek is going to pull it out.
We get the greater of one dollar per subscriber or 5 percent, whichever is a larger number, on the retail revenue. And on the wholesale accounts we get a dollar per wholesale account.
So in your model what do you anticipate Wireless Philadelphia's annual revenues to be?
In Wireless Philadelphia's model? Well, I can now just do the math off the 15 to 18 million. We are actually -- our hope is that they reach a success rate of about 20 million, and we are averaging about a million dollars a year in payments from EarthLink. But Wireless Philadelphia's model is only very partially based off of 165 revenue stream from EarthLink. The anticipation is that we are going to use that as a way to augment private charity contributions to what we are doing, and we have already been doing that, and actually the initial -- the initial feedback is that we can actually, hopefully, dramatically increase our budget on an annual basis well, well beyond what we are going to get from EarthLink.
And what, if any, revenues does the City of Philadelphia get out of this?
The City gets no 17 revenues from the work or, I should say, the sales of EarthLink. The City revenues are associated with the fees that I mentioned earlier, the fees related to the rental of the streetlights owned by the City and the inspection fee that we talked about earlier, $300,000.
Now, in that regard -- and Councilman Clarke did 166 ask about this, and I have been struggling a little bit to kind of figure this one out. You've got approximately 4,000 poles, although in your agreement, as I read through it quickly, you have actually a maximum of 5,000 poles that you can use, right?
You don't have to necessarily go through all the particulars right now, but it has been hard to figure out. In some parts of this document and other documents you have $74 a pole and then you have $24 a pole, and I understand that somewhere within the $2 million first two-year payment you're calculating $50 per pole and then the goes on top of it. That 20 has been a little difficult to work 21 through. 22
It was, as you can 23 imagine, Councilman, a very complicated 24 transaction and negotiation extending over many months, but essentially every 167 time you see $74, if we did it right, it should say approximately $74 for the pole.
And the reason we did that is because if you assume the target number of 4,000 streetlights that are anticipated for the network buildout, that would result in a calculation -- looking at the $2 million to be paid over the first two years to the City, that would calculate out at $50 per streetlight. If you add the $24 per streetlight annual rental to be charged in addition to the $2 million, that's how we get up to 74. On the other hand --
That's correct, through a payment schedule that's laid out in the agreement. If, for example, EarthLink is capable and needs to use up 168 to 5,000 streetlights, then the amount that I have been using as sort of a base at $50 would be a little less, and that's the reason why we have been talking about this as approximately $74 in terms of fees per streetlights. In addition to that, the City receives the benefit of the free and reduced-cost services that we have calculated to be approximately $13.3 million, so it is a significant benefit to the City over and beyond the socioeconomic goals that we are trying to achieve.
I understand. Why don't we do it this way, because I think I may be, at least for myself, kind of able to figure this out: The $2 million divided by 4,000 is 500. And I assume you are then taking that at $50 apiece over a ten-year period of time. Is that how you get that number?
Okay. 169 Great. Mr. Berryman, I'm not completely sure that you, as best I could hear, answered Councilwoman Reynolds Brown's question. I thought her question to you with regard to EarthLink was what are the companies -- what is EarthLink's MBE/WBE track record, and I think what I heard was a contribution to a high school in Atlanta. Was that the answer?
I think there were two parts to the question when she asked me what the contribution was to the community and the MBE, and I answered the contribution to the community. I think I said that I would get our corporate commitment on MBE submitted back to the Chair to be specific with it.
Well, I want to get the numbers right and make sure it is correct rather than talking about it off the cuff. It is not my area of 170 responsibility within EarthLink.
Okay. And the outreach, that was -- I mean the major contribution is with regard to the high school?
We make many contributions in the communities that we are in across the country. That's one of the ones I thought highlighted an area that we are very proud of in the City of Atlanta.
I assume when this hearing reconvenes you are coming back? You will be back with us to spend some quality time with us?
I thought today was quality. I would be more than happy to, Councilman.
We haven't gotten to the quality yet. Let me assure you. Mr. Solicitor, let me ask this one question: You have responded to this 171 a couple times with regard to why this model versus other models and looking to protect the City's interests, which of course I appreciate. What's the City's liability with regard to our cable franchise arrangement?
No, no, no. 11 We have cable franchise agreements with at the moment at least two companies directly with the City, Department of Public Property.
What is our financial liability or risk with regard to those transactions?
I'm not familiar with that. I would have to provide that to you for the record if I may.
I just don't know. The reason that I want to go back and review these is because the kind of risks that I talked about earlier in my response with regard to this set of transaction documents are related to personal injury, to property damage, and to proprietary rights damages. I would want to go back and look at it with respect to the franchise agreement because we're not just talking about a piece of equipment falling. There are potentially other kinds of risks. I would like to look at it and give you a thoughtful response for the record if I may.
Okay. Last question. Maybe this is best for either Mr. Pew or Mr. Berryman, although I would never exclude our CIO. Given the fact that you are entering into an agreement with a nonprofit organization which was created 173 by the City which has the best of goals in mind, the nature of that relationship, the opportunity to utilize I guess the tax rights of a nonprofit, do you have any concern that this would give rise to issues being raised that the City through Wireless Philadelphia is, at a certain level, engaging in some amount of market interference? I mean that your rates, the rates that are proposed, are primarily being guaranteed through a contract with Wireless, created by Wireless Philadelphia, created by the City. There is anticipated to be some amount of subsidization, either direct or indirect, by the City and certainly by foundations. You're a for-profit, I believe, publicly traded corporation, correct? I mean where is the line in this kind of issue between the private sector engaging in marketplace activities and either a nonprofit entity created and possibly supported by a government that 174 you start to venture into interfering in the normal marketplace.
If I may, Councilman, let me respond. We have looked at this issue very closely, and the short answer to your question is no, I am not concerned. But let me elaborate. The Home Rule Act prohibits the City of Philadelphia and other municipalities from engaging in proprietary actions, and when we looked at this transaction both with regard to the original model and set up Wireless Philadelphia as an independent nonprofit carrying out a charitable public purpose, we believed that we addressed that adequately. And even with respect to the situation now that there is a partnership between Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit, and EarthLink, we believe that we have done this right and we do not believe we are inappropriately engaging 175 in an activity of the private sector because the private sector is doing that on its own. And, lastly, for anyone who wants to come in and engage in a similar type activity, we now have, we believe, an appropriate basis for determining what the economic value is of the rental of streetlights from the City of Philadelphia, and we have plenty of those left after this agreement to rent to others.
I think the solicitor said it absolutely accurately. We worked very hard in going through these contracts to make sure there was no 20 impropriety. There is no subsidy that are embedded in these contracts, and we are not gaining anything throughout the Wireless Philadelphia, a nonprofit organization.
And my 176 absolute last question for the day is: Having given that answer, providing all the service, giving so much both to the City, low-cost rates, how do you make any money?
We make money by selling retail accounts and by encouraging other ISPs to come onto the network and the relationships that we have with them, so selling wholesale accounts. We also believe in the future of this network, that once the network is built, there will be applications that will be -- either that exist today or that will exist because of the nature of the network that will be sold over the network that will help us be profitable in the future.
What will EarthLink's business presence be in Philadelphia?
Besides the network, we will have approximately on an in-and-out basis, depending on the time of the year and other associations that are going on, about people in the 11 City.
We will. It is our plan to have an office that will house our general manager and other marketing and local salespeople.
Other than that end of the business, what presence will EarthLink have, or what will any company's presence be other than the attachments on the streetlights? You know, we all think cell phones work because there is an antenna someplace. 178 There is a structure built. What other equipment in Philadelphia will exist to support the streetlight attachments?
So EarthLink, as an ISP, already has a backbone or a network operation here called a POP, a point of presence, for our existing EarthLink Internet customers. That's on Broad Street in the telecommunications building. So we will expand that to handle the additional customers that will be coming over the network. And in terms of infrastructure, we will have the 4,000 radios at street level, and they will then communicate to towers. The towers already exist. We will rent space from those existing towers and put the small antennas -- you can see it over there. It's about the size of a shoe -- on those antennas.
And I suggested to you and I hope you made note that we have lots of City structures. We would like to collect the rent. 179
Like I mentioned earlier about the Streets Department maybe being eligible to do some of the attachment work to the streetlights, we would also like you to consider work with obviously the Public Property committee and department about installing those antennas on City-owned facilities and providing that revenue to us. You indicated that the initial buildout -- so I'm glad I went to the briefing -- the initial buildout of the system will only support 250,000 customers without an expansion to your existing plan. You smiled. Why?
That would be a lot. That would be a great deal. Currently today, EarthLink, as 180 an ISP, has somewhere between and 22,000 customers in this market. AOL, as a dial-up customer base in the City of Philadelphia, has about 150,000 customers, and they are by far the industry leader. So 250,000 customers using that network would be a great deal.
So you are 10 telling me a city of a million and a half 11 plus people and visitors, that the 12 250,000 number would support the activity 13 of the system? 14
Well, that 15 250,000 that I quoted was a subscriber 16 base, so occasional users, people that 17 come here on business and other 18 applications are not counted in that, and they would be -- a lot depends on the usage of the network, so if all 250,000 people are logged on at 7 o'clock at night, we would have an issue probably. That is not the way the Internet works. So we will have to look at and continue to -- it's our estimate that we 181 could with the one meg of speed and the other services that we guaranteed, that 250,000 people could use it, and it's from a subscriber base.
But it is very easily upgradable on the network so it could certainly go higher. And we would be wildly successful if we had to upgrade to go beyond 250,000.
Thank you. I'm sure there will be a lot more questions at a future hearing when people have actually read a lot of the agreements that they received yesterday or the day before, but I want to mention for the record, because there are a lot of people here that don't attend every Council hearing, we would never have held a hearing eight days after the introduction of a bill like this with the backup documents not present but for our high esteem for Dianah Neff and her personal schedule that she asked if we 182 could do this. We would never have had a list of 23, five other panels, to testify on behalf. That was kind of set up by the administration. We would have had a separate hearing for that. In fact, this hearing will be continued, not right now, just kind of giving everybody a heads-up -- until March 30. This committee, when we finish today, will stand in recess until March 30 at 4 o'clock specifically for public testimony. After that, probably within the next week or so, there will be another hearing like today dealing with Council members asking questions of the administration and hearing any other testimony, but Councilman Clarke and I still have to work out the schedule with the chief clerk on that, but we have, particularly at Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown's request, set 4 o'clock on the 30th. So we will be recessing 183 today, but public testimony only. I would ask any representatives of those on our first panel today to be present to help answer questions that people might have, but you will not be the focus of that hearing. It will come sometime afterwards and you will have plenty of notice of that, but I wanted to just be clear for the record. We are here on a Friday. We are doing the budget and some people don't have all the information on Council, but we wanted to get as much as we could out in front with Miss Neff present, and I just wanted everybody to know that. And anybody that is here today as a public testifier will be welcome to testify today, come back on the 30th for more public testimony, but if for some reason you had to leave, I want you to know there is a subsequent hearing already scheduled for people like yourself who either sat through all of this or couldn't make it and didn't know 184 about it, whatever the reason was, and that will be at o'clock in this room. 4 So we will start on Panel 2. If you don't know who you are on Panel 2 -- it looks like you know, so I will let you come. Panel 2 names are Pat Renzulli, School District; Paul Sanfrancesco, Archdiocese; Willie Cade, Computers for Schools; Mike Capobianco, Computers for Youth. I would ask the panel and each of the panels going forward if you could summarize your testimony and we will enter your statements into the record, considering the time of day and we are having another session for public testimony. But thank you. You can start. If you would identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of City Council. My name is Pat Renzulli, and I'm the chief information officer for the School District of Philadelphia. 185 We in the School District are quite excited about the prospects for this project, primarily because it gives us the opportunity to increase communication between the School District and its families. Our interest in this is not for our direct use of the network because the School District has its own robust network as well as wireless. Our interest is really because of what it can provide for our families. Coincident with this project, we in the School District have been developing a program that we call Family Net, and it gives our families access to a lot of information about their children, report card information, benchmark test information, as well as individualized instructional resources that are all available on-line for families to use in their home to help their children. What's been missing from our program is the technology infrastructure 186 for those families that cannot afford computers and access to the Internet. So because of the social goals associated with this project, it now gives our low-income families economically advantageous pricing to access the Internet. To complement that, we also intend to provide training for our families as well as reasonably cost computers. We already have a refurbished computer program. Dianah Neff had mentioned computers that cost around $150. We have been making those available to our families for programs that we have anyway. Family Net is just over and above that. All families within the School District will have access to Family Net by the end of this school year. The challenge then is to create the infrastructure to allow families to tap into that information.
Thank you, Chairman O'Neill. Willie Cade from Computers for Schools. I'm the chief executive officer. I have submitted to the clerk my two-page testimony, and I will briefly summarize it.
Thank you. There are five basic reasons that we are in support of this project. It will spread the Internet over the City -- much of this has been already covered -- provide the ability to connect anywhere, be easy to connect, create the speed necessary for today's applications, and there will be plenty of hardware. That really is our focus here. We have a facility on North Lycoming in Philadelphia where we do the refurbishment. We are a Microsoft-authorized refurbisher, and with that we can provide legally licensed 188 operating systems for refurbished equipment. All of our employees live in the City of Philadelphia, pay their taxes here. Our systems that are provided by Computers For Schools have a three-year hardware warranty with an 800 number here in Philadelphia that people can call for technical support. I believe one of the councilwomen talked earlier about how she calls her daughter. Well, we have an 800 number for her. I also want to point out that we have a very proud relationship with the School District of Philadelphia. They put out an RFP for refurbished computers for the district itself in the schools. We were one of the winners of that, and we have a three-year contract with them on that. And we meet all of their MWBE requirements and insurance requirements as presented by the RFP, and so we are very proud of that. 189 And just to one of the other councilwomen's questions, there are three officers of our corporation. Two of them are women. And our cost is $150. We will be putting in a wireless card and hopefully we will be able to make agreements with the retail providers in order for the subscribers to amortize the cost of the equipment over a year's time period so that it's not $150 up front. By the way, many of the advertisements you will see in the newspapers for $300 computers have a little asterisk to it, and at the bottom of the page it is $600 and you get a $250 rebate sometimes six months later or not, and so what we look to do is really work with and bridge the digital divide. Our technical people at Computers For Schools, both of them are formerly digital service fellows from the School District. They both graduated from the School District of Philadelphia 190 and we are very proud of that.
Thank you, Chairman, for the opportunity. My name is Mike Capobianco. I'm the manager of Strategic Partnerships For Computers For Youth. We spoke, I think, another time in front of the Council in September, and since then we have done some due diligence in locating a city within the United States that we want to grow our services and what we do, and we have located -- we have made the decision that Philadelphia is the City based on the wireless initiative that you are putting forth or we are discussing here today. I'll be brief, knowing the time constraints. The first thing is, like I said, because of the wireless initiative is why we want to do this, and what we want to do is have a pilot program that 191 we are going to identify one or two schools within Philadelphia within that 15-mile proof of concept area, and we are going to go ahead and place computers in those schools in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and go and provide all of our services, which includes training and also 1-800 call, and we are talking with Willie Cade's organization about partnering with them, so we will be utilizing local Philadelphia resources to do that. Our focus for this initiative is really twofold. One, it's a pilot program, so we want to see if it works, if you go forward with this, to see if it works. And, also, we want to extend what we do, which is measuring outcomes. CFY is about seeing, okay, now we have placed the computer in somebody's home. How does it work and how does it affect families and how does it affect students? So we have been working closely with Dianah Neff's office and 192 with Pat Renzulli, Vince Tattola and Jake Cohen at the School District of Philadelphia to help to make this happen, and we are excited to work with you as true partners. Thank you.
If I could add one more point, Mr. Chairman. The question about having enough equipment comes up. Today in the United States there are 230 million PCs that are currently in use that. And they have an average 4-1/2 year life span with their first use. That means 136,000 computers per day come off-line and are available for refurbishment. We hope to collect this coming Earl Day, April 22, 100,000 of those across the country for refurbishment and we certainly hope to get your support on that.
Mr. Cade, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown has come back in, and she will be anxiously awaiting 193 that 800 number after you get up from the witness stand. Panel No. 3 I have listed Veronica Wentz, Linda Villacazzi Tulane and David Van Nekirk. Identify yourself for the record, and same request, if we can. Written testimony will be submitted for the record and you can summarize.
Sure. Hello. My name is Veronica Wentz, and I'm the Web site and new media director with Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation. I had been to a similar hearing in September, and again I would like to make the case for Wireless Philadelphia. The world's most widely read travel magazine, National Geographic Traveler, has named Philadelphia America's next great city in its October issue. This story provides an exceptional opportunity to showcase Philadelphia as a sophisticated 194 destination. While our history has always set us apart, our arts and cultural attractions, restaurants and nightspots are also impressive and well-deserving of this extraordinary recognition. This story showcases Philadelphia as the invigorating destination it is, and, in doing so, lends us an invaluable hand in our effort to expand the City's image. What makes Philadelphia the next great City? There are several things, and Wireless Philadelphia we believe is certainly one of them. One of the strongest benefits that GPTMC sees from this vast, free WiFi zone covering the entire city would be the enhanced image that it brings Philadelphia in the eyes of visitors and potential visitors. While the actual benefits of WiFi availability to visitors including the access for them to conveniently use 195 the service to make a reservation are very significant and would be helpful to attracting visitors, the fact that there would be a vibrant public people in public spaces filling up the sidewalks and public spaces would only make Philadelphia more attractive to visitors. The city will look contemporary, dynamic, hip and brimming with activity, all of which are desirable traits for any City. This enhanced image translates to attract potential residents and businesses and more visitors to Philadelphia. WiFi will strengthen Philadelphia as a competitive location. It will enhance the visitor Philadelphia experience. It will also lend to greater delivery of public services and show a strong investment in the city and the people that live in the City of Philadelphia. It's really great that we are connecting all the dots among our 196 neighborhoods, public squares, tourist attractions and museums through improved transportation routes like the Philadelphia Phlash, pedestrian walkways, bicycle lanes, and directional signage. We can also stay connected through communications systems, and Wireless Philadelphia is proving to be the invisible thread that holds this all together. The Philadelphia Cloud was developed as the interface for Philadelphia's wireless network, and over 4,000 members across Love Park and the Historic Area have used the pilot zones. Museums, businesses and organizations along the Parkway and Historic District can update The Cloud information with their unique, relevant information to WiFi-enabled laptops, PDAs and cell phones. The Cloud has helped cultural institutions like the Franklin Institute promote the current Body Worlds exhibit. 197 It was utilized by hundreds of visitors and the media during the Live Concert 4 on the Parkway this past summer. And 5 AOL's groundbreaking Internet Web cast of 6 the worldwide Live 8 concerts had more 7 than 5 million people tuning into the 8 concert coverage on-line, which bested the TV viewership of the concert. During the Campus Philly Kick-off festival in September nearly 10,000 college students learned that the Parkway is a hot zone. Philadelphia Cloud partnered with Campus Philly and the City who produced the event and assigned live, roving reporters who provided festival highlights, talent lineup information, they exchanged photographs, and reminded students that all of the museums were open for free with college ID by using simple text messaging on their mobile phones. College students today will be going from a wireless campus and hopefully to a wireless city and stay 198 here and take advantage of the technology that Philadelphia has to offer.
Information was shared on where to go after the Campus Philly Kick-off and what else was planned for the week-long festivities including internship fairs and graduate student mixers. Students were able to communicate with other students like never before due to the mobility, flexibility, collaboration, and communication that only wireless access can bring. Benefits to visitors will include being able to Google train schedules in Love Park, find a shoe sale while strolling Market Street, read a biography of Ben Franklin on their way to tour Independence Hall or pay a parking ticket without ever standing in line. The benefit to business travelers is invaluable and they can extend their stay without ever having to worry to get back to the office. 199 At this time about 300 municipalities around the country are undertaking broadband experiments, but none of them are as extensive as what Philadelphia is planning now. For example, in November New Orleans opened a media center that served as the city's central voice in promoting a positive message of New Orleans' recovery and rebirth to an international audience. The media center served as a resource for journalists covering New Orleans' approach to Mardi Gras as the unofficial reopening to visitors from around the world. The center provided high-speed and wireless Internet service, cable news access and computer resources. Wireless access was a key component in aiding the industry's and the city's continuing resurgence. San Jose's Convention and Visitors' Bureau --
Too long, and I also understand that the court stenographer does not have a copy of it.
If you could summarize it and give her the full copy, it would be great.
Okay. I'll certainly do that. Anyway, it is all about access and convergence for everyone, and that is what's so great about the Wireless Philadelphia plan. It's now an essential infrastructure, one that visitors, residents and tourists can all enjoy. Thank you.
I understand you won't be around -- our next two witnesses won't be around in Philadelphia on the 30th for the next hearing, but we really appreciate you 201 having come so far to testify, and we want to really welcome you to the city and hope you enjoy the time you have here. Could you identify yourself for the record?
Thank you, Councilman. My name is Linda Villagas Salani. I come from Johannesburg, the City of Johannesburg in South Africa. I'm currently the head of the economic development department there. We have been around for a week now, and this was an opportunity to come in and have a short stay in this hearing. I think, just to put things into context, we, as the City of Johannesburg, have actually for a while been looking at going wireless and broadband. And we had decided to take on the study too. The idea was to say this is not about anybody being first or best, but it is about how you do it well, and 202 fortunately we have picked up some great similarities between Johannesburg and Philadelphia. The key interest for us to be involved in broadband wireless has been purely to drive economic development, especially in areas that are declining in terms of economic activity. So we are hoping to use broadband wireless to spark off economic activity and give access to the majority of the people in South Africa who actually do not have easy access. We hope that the outcome of that will be stimulating small business development, there would be more businesses coming into Johannesburg, and, as you have also alluded in this hearing, that lots of other benefits would be picked out of that. We have found it interesting to listen to your business model and I think we have picked up quite a lot of wisdom in that, and we believe that this visit 203 for us would actually add positives to our plan. I think, in summarizing this, just to give you a sense, Johannesburg has a population of 3.4 million people. Almost 50 percent of them live in areas that were previously disadvantaged. We have quite a high unemployment rate of over 32 percent, so, as you can see, if we can be able to have wireless and broadband, there would be quite a lot of benefits to South Africa. I think in conclusion all I can say is that success for Philadelphia in this project would actually have positive impacts elsewhere in the world including Johannesburg. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is David Funiker. I also work for the economic development unit and I'm responsible for economic 204 sector support. We have selected the ICT sector as one of our sectors to support, and thank you for this opportunity to address you. Just to give you some indication of how big the problem is, there is a local group in Jerberg called My ADSL that did an analysis of how expensive broadband Internet access was in our city, and in our country in fact. And what they did was they worked out that it would be cheaper and faster to get into a plane, travel to Hong Kong, which is actually a ten-hour flight, walk into an Internet cafe, download the gigabyte of information, go back to the airport and fly back to Johannesburg. It would be cheaper and faster. So that is the scale of the problem that we have in the country and it is based on essentially a monopolistic telecom supply. So with that, we have approximately 10 percent access to the 205 Internet in our City and perhaps below 1 percent of that would be high-speed broadband access. So it is a huge problem, and we have been very fortunate to be working with and looking at what you have been doing in the city and looking at your progress in terms of the business model. We have also visited some of your pilot sites yesterday and it was very instructive to see that they are actually working and that people of the community are actually using them, and so we thank you for this opportunity, and when you are making your decision later in March, be sure that the decision that you make is not only for the benefit of the citizens of this city, but also this country and the rest of humanity. So we will be looking closely and we thank you for this opportunity.
We hope we can be helpful to our brothers and sisters in South Africa. Thank you very 206 much for your testimony. Next panel is Panel 4, Gloria Guard, Jane Shull, Beverly Harper. I guess you're representing the panel today. And they can come back. The one nice thing about going so long is some people could leave if they had to. Identify yourself for the record and summarize if you can and we will make sure your full statement is in the record.
My name is Jane Shull. I'm the director of Philadelphia Fight, which is an AIDS service organization in Philadelphia, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify here in support of the wireless initiative and for hanging in there to listen to those members of the public who hung in there with you. I'm here today because one of the many services that Philadelphia Fight provides is wireless -- is dial-up services through the Critical Path Aids 207 Project. Crit Path is an Internet service provider that for about ten years has been providing fee dial-up access, free e-mail accounts, Web hosting, list serves, meaning e-mail lists that people can communicate with each other on various other services. We have a help desk so that people who are really unfamiliar with the Internet can get access to it, and for the past five years we have also offered Internet services to the family support centers in public 14 schools where we have been giving them 15 Web pages and access to the Internet. 16 There is more, but I will skip it. 17 We provide these services for 18 people living with HIV and AIDS because 19 the World Wide Web is where the information is. This is not only true for HIV. Health information is widely available on the Web regardless of what your situation is, and contrary to what you may hear, much of it is reliable, is up to date and is helpful. Often the 208 information that an individual can get from the Internet will guide them to better healthcare and better choices and better life chances, and in a world where you are lucky to get more than five minutes with a doctor, being able to ask the right questions is really important. We in the AIDS community in Philadelphia were fortunate because the founder of the Critical Path AIDS Project, the late Kiyoshi Kuromiya, gave us the Internet before many other nontechnologically inclined people had access to it. We learned in the 1990s to use this tool to work together, to work with others nationally and internationally. And so we know what it means to be ahead of the curve because in using the wired Internet we were ahead of the curve. We saw the Internet used as a tremendous tool for good in the first years of this decade when international organizations such as Doctors Without Borders 209 circulated petitions worldwide that eventually led large pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices on AIDS drugs in third-world countries. And that work, in turn, led to the involvement of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton to begin to turn that tragedy around. We learned to communicate instantly with clinicians and activists and other communities for the most up-to-date information to learn about new drug trials, new approaches, and better alternatives for people living with HIV. Just yesterday somebody asked me if I could help find a doctor for a son of a friend of his in a city where I don't know anybody and by this morning I was able to offer him three clinics and two private doctors, and the reason was the Internet, that I was able to e-mail people and other people e-mailed other people, and of course you could have done all of this with phone calls, but it would have taken four times as long and 210 you might not have been able to get through. So this is the kind of difference we have seen the Internet make for people. In our ten years of providing these services, we have grown to serve over 8,000 people in all the area codes in this region. Most of them are low income. Most of them have limited education. Many of them are reading well below a high school level, but all of them, because they were motivated to learn, have figured out how to set up a dial-up account from home and to utilize these services, and that's really why I'm here, to say to you that we know, because we have been doing it, that people who are low income and who have limited education, if you give them the tools, they will use the tool. They will learn to do it. They will learn to connect.
They will learn to access the Internet, and they will be able to get the kind of information that would not otherwise have 211 been available to them, and we know because we have been doing it. And I think that with the lower rates for low-income people as proposed and with opportunities we hope for some people who are really desperately poor to get access for free, we have no doubt that people will take advantage of this. I finally just want to say, skipping here, that I have emphasized healthcare because that's what my organization provides and there are other people who can talk to you about economic opportunity, but I also want to point out that this is also about citizenship, and our future as a society lies in an informed citizenry. If my spouse, former Councilman Ed Schwartz, were here today, he would be talking to you about neighborhood organizations and block captains and networks that he has been doing for the past 15 years and he would be talking to you today about how if by doing this we 212 can get two times, three times, ten times as many people in Philadelphia on the Internet, the difference that it would make for civic involvement in this city whole really be absolutely incalculable. Finally, I would just close by saying that the wireless initiative really includes a serious commitment to make the Internet accessible to low-income people. I urge you to support it for the people who we serve, for the people who you serve. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. We now have Panel 5, Judy Miller, Bailey White and Donald Campbell. Please begin. Again, I request brevity, and if you have written testimony, the stenographer will enter it for the record. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman O'Neill. My name is Judy Miller. I'm president and founder of Ninth Wave Media, a women-owned business 213 based in Ohio. I'm also an educator and a fierce advocate for the educational use of the Internet. When I heard about Wireless Philadelphia, I heard about it through the Internet, and I immediately sent Dianah Neff an e-mail. I have been advocating for the educational use of the Internet for so long and I thought, "Wow, Philadelphia gets it and I want to be part of that." And, thus, after meeting with Dianah, it was just a wonderful experience in terms of them launching and developing two portals. I have developed the portal for Olney in Norris Square and the portal is currently live. It has been updated every day since July at 20 the launch, and I will just briefly 21 explain how it is being used, what we are 22 doing with it, and why I still believe 23 that Wireless Philadelphia needs to go 24 forward. 25 We currently are providing over 214 300 free e-mail accounts to residents of Philadelphia who could not log onto the network because they needed an e-mail address. We have had over 11,000 unique visits to the portal, which offers local news, local content, features. And I want to say right now I did not do this alone. I am in collaboration with Lutheran Children & Family Service and Tech Access PA, and together we co-authored a curriculum which is being implemented. We are graduating students. The projections are that over a hundred, many of them seniors, will be graduating from this program by the end of the one-year anniversary of the network. In the classes even during -- as an aside, even during the bus strike the students in the class got to the class. We thought nobody would show up that night. Everybody got there. As far as going forward, the purpose of the portal, we have identified 215 four significant ways to impact the community, one in terms of just government. And I just thought I would quickly give you a story what we ran a couple of weeks ago in terms of a health alert story that tied into a press release from the Pennsylvania Department of Health on an anthrax case at Mansfield University. We digested that press release, and instead of scaring everybody about that, our headline was it's not a threat, it's no problem, don't worry about it. So the potential to use the portals to disseminate accurate information from government agencies is phenomenal, and we definitely want to expand that area. In terms of links on the portal, we have many links right now into government services and we would like to expand that to include more training on what those services can do. As far as education, we are in 216 support of the School District's efforts in building literacy with test prep using local news to enhance vocabulary, those kinds of skills. And as far as business, we are ready to launch what we are calling a small business incubator for small businesses that cannot get on-line because of complexity or cost. We have taken all of that away or we provide the tools so that they can get on-line, conduct E-commerce and understand how to do business on the Internet. We provide the back-end tools at very low cost. So that's a significant portion of our efforts in terms of profiling small businesses in Philadelphia, which we are doing already. In conclusion, I just want to thank everyone for the time today and again reiterate my belief that Wireless Philadelphia will really set the standard nationwide for how a network can be used for meaningful learning, not just access, 217 but meaningful learning, and that's what our goal is across all ages, from kids to seniors, that that will change lives, transform lives, and build a learning society. Thank you.
My name is Bailey White, and it is my pleasure to be here. I'm a consultant for Cividium and have also been involved in several of the pilots. Judy Miller's portal has fielded two and I was in charge of two other ones, the ones in the Center City area, the Historic District and Love Park. It is my pleasure to report to you that we have had over 5,000 people, unique people, use the network since it has been in operation. We average over 3,000 log-ins per month. So the demand is really quite high, even though the advertising and awareness for these networks I would argue is quite low in this City. So I believe you really have with this operation tapped into something 218 that people really want and that people are excited about. I've worked with WHYY; with GPTMC; with GPCA, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance; with the Franklin Institute, with the Parkway Foundation, and with many other entities, which I should give credit to but won't due too time, that are very excited about this network and the possibilities it brings to Philadelphia. What I would like to present as an exhibit and record are over a thousand comments that we have received during the time we have run this pilot. If I may, I will mention just a couple of them and then submit it to you. So when we first started asking users for comments, this was the very first one we received. "It is very convenient for me. It helps me keep in touch with various tasks while at work. This way I have more time for my children when I go home at night instead of to my 219 computer to work." That was the very first comment. The next one, "It's great that you have a wireless signal set up a Love Park. I would never be able to get my schoolwork done without it." I won't go through and read all of these, but let me mention a couple others that give you some more perspective. "I'm a small business owner. This service is the best perk that our city offers small businesses. I can work inexpensively in coffee shops, which keeps my operational costs low." One more, and I will just close with this, "Philadelphia Wireless is a great idea. It's probably one of the reasons I will stay in Philadelphia to create my business." So, again, I commend you on your excellent work. Thank you.
Good afternoon. 220 I am Don Xavier Campbell, the media past president for the Black Data Processing Association, the Philadelphia Chapter. It is obviously our pleasure to be here. The Philadelphia Chapter of BDPA is the original chapter for this organization, which was founded here in Philadelphia back in 1975. It is the oldest technology affinity group in the country. We have some 300 members here in the Philadelphia area and some 4,000 members around the country, in the UK, and in Canada with some 55 chapters around the country. Fortunately, quite a few of those chapters are in the footholds of municipalities that have engaged in wireless technology, so we do have a very first-hand understanding of what is taking place. You know, it is interesting. BDPA was found under the premise to help individuals move from the classroom to the board room to ensure that there is a 221 level playing field for those that are engaged in technology, but, more importantly, to ensure that there was a future for those that are in a minority class to be active participants and recipients of the values of technology. Today, no different than yesterday, the challenges are still the same. I will be relatively brief, but one of the things I want to bring to your attention is our goal is to increase the awareness, acceptance, and utilization of technology by the minority community, not just the hand-me-down aspect, but the true embracement of technology. As such, our local agenda provides training, mentorship programs, awareness programs for our stakeholders which includes students, entrepreneurs, business owners, and, to your comment, Councilman Rizzo, older adults. That is a very large part of the focus of our agenda. As such, we are constantly, 222 constantly exposed to the ill effects or the lack of digital inclusion in the areas of the digital divide. We have first-hand knowledge and involvement with individuals in small businesses that are feeling the negative impact of not being connected and having access to those tools. Unfortunately, we hear the first-hand desperate pleas for citizens crying for help. We hear and see the ill effects of frustrated students who find that the only time they can do their homework at 6 o'clock in the evening because of having a part-time job after school. Unfortunately, at 6:00 in the evening the Philadelphia Library system is closed. Most of the recreation centers that they can utilize for technology are closed. Most of those community technology centers, while doing a very good job, are closed. Those individuals are feeling direct, direct impact. Across the nation, whether it 223 is in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, it hasn't mattered. Those cities have seen a tremendous benefit from this wireless technology. Imagine, those cities are doing it on a very small scale. 5 million population of Philadelphia, if we were to fully embrace this and have the positive vote of City Council, imagine the ultimate benefit we could produce. Three weeks ago BDPA had the pleasure of managing and coordinating a citywide event heralded as the Black Family Technology Awareness Week Program. During that time frame we directly touched and impacted some 2000 residents, citizens, of Philadelphia, teaching them from the basics of technology, having seniors that for the very first time in their lives were exposed to computers, who, for the first time in their lives, were able to navigate their way through the Internet. Unfortunately, those same 224 seniors are in apartment buildings that will not allow hard wiring to allow them to participate in technology. Hence, the need for a wireless connectivity. As a part of that activity we took an informal survey. During that informal survey of those 2000 individuals, roughly just shy of 50 percent of them, fortunately, had a home computer. Unfortunately, though, that was just those individuals that responded.
And of those 50 percent that did have a home computer, only percent 15 of them had high-speed access. 16 So, again, the problems are 17 relatively obvious. The solution, 18 however, is also obvious, that being 19 Wireless Philadelphia, which can address 20 both the need for home computing and access to connectivity. We firmly believe that Wireless Philadelphia will position Philadelphia to not only be revered as a city that has embraced technology, but more so a city that is 225 actively participating in eradicating the digital divide. In closing, I would like to say that partnerships, relationships, collaboration is the only way that this is going to happen. Wireless Philadelphia as an entity will not do it by itself. It does require the support and assistance of organizations such as BDPA and those others that you have heard from today. I would like to offer that we are definitely in support of Wireless Philadelphia and strongly, strongly urge City Council to approve the streetlight access and the service agreements before, before, adjourning for the summer. A delay cannot make this work positively. I thank you for your time and attention on behalf of the members of the BDPA family. Thank you.
Thank you for your testimony. Please, if you would, just comment on the mentorship 226 programs you have in place.
Currently we have mentorship programs that include students that are either in middle school, high school and also into the collegiate ranks. As a part of that process, we provide them with hands-on training, we provide them with skills and exposure to business professionals that they would ordinarily not get to. We go beyond the shadowing day activities that are currently in place in the city and we don't do it just for one day out of the year. This is an ongoing process. We believe you cannot have impact when it is just for one short period of time, one burst of time, but through sustained programs. Citywide on average we have around 75 to 85 kids that are part of that enrollment that are in the Philadelphia School District and another to 45 students that are part of the 25 high academia world that are coming from 227 Temple University and Drexel University.
They are typically identified -- the high school and middle school students are identified typically through their technology leader within that particular school that has identified, and we strongly request that we do not want the cream of the crop. Those students tend to be self-sufficient. We tend to focus on those individuals that are borderline, that our program and services can give the most impact as we see them succeed. The college students are typically associated by their deans.
Thank you for your testimony. Questions from members of the committee? Very well. Thank you very much.
We have 228 Panel No. 6, Stan Pokras, Jonathan Stein, Danielle Redden and Gretcha Klausing.
My name is Stan Pokras. I'm 59 years old and a lifelong resident of Philadelphia. I have had an interest in systems that help people communicate since I ran an informations store on South Street in 1970. People need each other. People need access to information, and systems and services that provide access to each other are a very important part of what I consider to be the nervous system for the human race. We are working to develop this new nervous system, and this is what we are talking about here today. First of all, I want you to know that I had absolutely nothing to do with helping Al Gore invent the Internet. I did create the first small computer bulletin board system for gardening information which was run by the Philadelphia County Extension Service, and I created the Philadelphia Energy 229 Network bulletin board where former City Councilman Ed Schwartz first learned that he can interact with local activists through computers. I currently am the executive director of Nonprofit Technology Resources, a computer refurbishing program located in the Spring Garden section of the City, and I am here today in my role as the coordinator of an e-mail list for community technology centers known as the Community Technology Centers Network or CTCNet. Locally we have about 600 members from over 200 organizations represented on this list. Community technology centers provide an educational opportunity in people's neighborhoods and are a key factor in helping people who can't afford computers to gain access and to learn how to use computers right in their own neighborhoods. These centers are small organizations in some cases, just a 230 couple of computers in a church basement, or they can be as large as the $12 million Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Center operated by Project Home. I believe there were several representatives of community technology centers here in the room 9 today. I think most of them have gone home. Anybody from a community technology center left? No. 12 One important thing that I would like the City Council to consider is that this technology is not going to go away. Other municipalities are close behind us in planning to install wireless networks; therefore, the question before this Council is not whether to support or not support this project. The question is does Philadelphia have the courage to lead now or will we be playing catch-up later. Who will benefit the most from this network? Wireless access to the Internet will benefit both large and 231 small enterprises as well as individuals, but the people who are now working to escape the shackles of poor education, underemployment, broken families, and depressed neighborhoods will be the people who will benefit the most as they work hard to build small enterprises. Picture the door-to-door salesperson who will be able to display the world's goods through their laptop or the artistic agent who will not be limited by the size of a hard drive when showing off a client's work, or the importer of exotic items from far away who is no longer tied to an office in one spot but can do business anywhere the wireless signal reaches. These are the people who will build the prosperous Philadelphia of the future, but they need the jump-start that this project will provide for them in order to gain an advantage over other regions of the country. This project can be the turning point in which 232 Philadelphia builds a new economy and provides new opportunities for all of its people. Let's face the fact that there is no hope of new industry coming from outside to employ large numbers of our workers. Philadelphia must grow its own new businesses and new industries. How can we do this? By offering new, bold opportunities for our citizens to express their creativity and organize their resources. This wireless network is one superb tool we can inexpensively acquire to foster a dramatic increase in creative enterprise growth. Let's not miss this opportunity.
My name is Karen Perry with Karacom, and I'm a consultant to Wireless Philadelphia, and I'm engaged in community engagement and digital divide, digital inclusion work, across 233 this market. The piece that I sent you, I think of it as soup and sandwich. I have to admit that 30 years ago when I went off to college, my dad told me whatever you do, take computers too. Economics, education, finance, it didn't matter what you did, but dad said that being able to use a computer as part of your work would really differentiate you and make you effective in the future. My dad was right. But now we are at the same juncture again, but it's not just computers. Now they call it ICT, information and computing technology. And it's not just having a computer, but it is having a broadband connection to the Web. And it's like soup and sandwich. It goes better with everything. It goes better with health education. It goes better with health information. It goes better with education. It goes better with work 234 force development. It goes better with citizenry. It goes better with government services. At this point in our society having a computer and having broadband access with that computer is really an enabler to be able to do everything you do effectively and more effectively. The broadband penetration rate in the State of Pennsylvania is to 12 percent. That is just inadequate. This 13 isn't the only solution, but if we add 14 this solution to the others, it will be a 15 huge help. We have to help people with 16 broadband penetration. 17 I also just wanted to share 18 some stats with you that I picked up at a 19 conference that I was at last week. This 20 is the Municipal Wireless Conference that is run by a woman named Ezby Boss, who does a Blog that is very well-known in the area of municipal wireless. And what she does is she tracks many wireless projects globally but specifically in the 235 US. And she took stats from July 2005 and then compared them to the stats of February 2006, and I think you will see the growth and the interest in this technology is huge. She tracked 122 projects in July 2005. Six months later it was 186. And that was operational hot zone and people with concrete plans. Of those that were operational the change went from 35 to 56. Hot zones went from to 13 29. People using it for public safety 14 including video surveillance, meter 15 reading as well as an increased usage of 16 cops and cars even at pretty good speeds, 17 that went from 28 to 42 in that six-month 18 time period. And planned deployments 19 went from 34 to 59. 20 Philadelphia, when we announced 21 this project, we were clearly the leader 22 and we still are the leader, but the traction that we are seeing on this technology and the applications for this technology that we are seeing in six 236 months are huge. I know that the EarthLink guys are not here, but I don't think that the next Philadelphia can sign a contract as good as the one that you've got because they were very flexible in trying to create a great deal and a marquis opportunity for them, and it is important to leverage your leadership and keep on going.
Thank you. We are down now to our last panel, which didn't start out as a panel, and I don't know if they are still here, Joshua Brightboart? Media Tank. Robert Chaporak?
This is not my writing. And Faye Dechter. Is there anyone else here? Now that we are down to one more witness whose name we have, is there anyone else here who wants to testify? Come on up. Do you want to 237 testify? Grab a seat. Now is the time. You can start. Identify yourself for the record.
My name is Robert Taporak. I'm representing Team Children, a nonprofit organization in Audubon, Pennsylvania, that has now managed to collect, repair, and distribute over 6,000 computers. Approximately 4,000 of them have gone to families in Philadelphia. 1,500 of them have gone to high schools and middle schools in Philadelphia. A majority of them have gone to minority women raising children alone in poverty, and a large portion of those families have children with severe developmental disabilities. I would like to thank the Council for having me. Sitting here today, I'm really astonished, and I really want to commend both Council and the first panel for the tremendous amount of time and energy and expertise and concern that you put into 238 this matter. And I want to start off by saying I am for you passing this as soon as possible. I have some rain clouds I would like to bring in or some considerations I would like you to consider and I think they are important parts of this whole bill and I haven't heard anybody really address this issue. The issue is digital inclusion. So I think I have a little finger on the pulse. Even though I'm in Audubon, I think I have a finger on the pulse of what is going on in the city. And just recently Team Children donated, at our expense, computers to the Queen Lane 17 Community Center, and it is 301 West 18 Queen Lane. This is what they say: The 19 children in the program are mostly from 20 single-family households, very low income. The Queen Lane Tenant Management Corporation provides all the social services that they get. The computers that normally would cost $160 would be something they need to help give them 239 training about raising their children. I know that without having some kind of computer technology you will not be able to function in any kind of decent job in the future. So it's really important I think to get computers into the homes of every family except I don't think this Council realizes how inept the effort is in the city. We have helped the Hunting Park Community Development Corporation at 3961 North 9th Street get computers, and I could just go on and on, and at some point I will give this Council a list of all the families and organizations that we have helped in the City of Philadelphia. So the first thing I would like to ask this committee to consider is making an exception to whatever your rules are for participation in the digital inclusion program so that Team Children, although we aren't located in Philadelphia, continues to be included in 240 that effort. Okay? I will put that request in writing.
Put it in writing and, if you can, be here on the 30th for the public testimony when I believe EarthLink and.
We will have you to talk to Councilwoman Reynolds Brown's staff because I think she is going to be chairing that, but if you could speak to Dianah Neff, who has been sitting through all the public testimony as well, and just let her know your organization because she is on the board of Wireless Philadelphia by virtue of her position.
I will do that. The next thing is that when I was in the Army and I was taking basic training and we learned how to shoot rifles, the first thing they taught us was to make sure you had your eye on the 241 target, so I have not heard anybody mention really what the target is or what the cost of this digital inclusion project is, so I'm going to give you some samples of what I'm talking about. Contrary to what was previously testified about it costing $150 to give somebody a computer, that came from Computers For Schools. How they do that I have no clue. We have no staff and we have no funding and it still cost us about $160, $175 to give somebody a computer even though all the computers are donated, even though all the work is done by volunteers. So it cost a whole lot more than $150. There was a bid in the School District. They underbid everybody. They got the contract. There were myself and Stan Pokras, who are the major distributors of refurbished computers in the City. We chose not to bid on that because it was a budget buster and there was no way we could stay in business 242 meeting the requirements of that RFP. Computers for Schools is a big national organization. They have a whole lot more going than we do, but in terms of small programs in Philadelphia, we could not meet that number. In addition to that, if you then add 40 or $45 for a wireless card, then you have increased the cost of the computer and then you have to get it installed and make sure it works, and then you have to make sure that you provide service. So suppose that there are -- take that number. There's 590,000 households in Philadelphia. Nobody has mentioned how many of those don't have computers yet. I would estimate at least 10 percent. That's approximately 60,000 households. To give 60,000 households computers is going to cost you about $13 million. Where is that money going to come from? That's just to get the computer and get it refurbished, and 243 that's not delivering it and doing all the other stuff. Where's that money going to come from? I have no clue because we have done everything we could to get this project funded, and most foundations do not want to fund the distribution of computers to families without training. What I found is if you give a family a computer, they learn how to use it, and we have done surveys, Wharton School did a survey, and they found that most of the families -- there are other people that believe you have to train people before you give them a computer, but, you know, in this day and age somebody is going to figure out how to use it. It is either a kid in the family or somebody will figure out how to use it. So we're talking about $13 million just to distribute computers to 10 percent of the families in Philadelphia, and I think there is a 244 whole lot more than that. Lower it? Okay. Let's just say there are 30,000. You are talking about $6,750,000. If Wireless Philadelphia is only going to get a million dollars, I have no idea how much they plan to spend on digital inclusion and how far that will go, and I don't think it will go very far.
Mr. Taporak, I think your comments are very good and I would ask you to take that last matter you mentioned to Miss Neff as you leave and come back on the 30th and let this committee know particularly if you have had any answers and ask them again if you don't with Wireless Philadelphia and EarthLink here. She is sitting right here.
They are excellent points and there may be some good answers and you may be somebody they want to embrace. 245
And the School District does not have a real powerful plan. At least in the three or four years that I have been dealing with them it has been nothing but upsets and frustrations at dealing with getting computers into those schools. That's it.
Thank you. Councilman Rizzo would like to ask you a followup.
You know, I know you come from far out in Montgomery County, but I will tell you I personally and I'm sure my colleagues appreciate the fact that there is not a whole lot of suburban organizations, as far as I know, that have helped out schools or organizations here in the City of Philadelphia. We really appreciate that of you.
There is one 246 other thing. I was thinking about this. This is really a monumental time in the history not only of this Council, but of the City, and I was thinking about it this morning and I was saying, okay, a revolution started here and this is nothing short of a conversation about a new revolution. The revolution is not for independence. It is for interdependence because once you have access to the Internet, you have access to a whole range of people all over the world. Thank you.
Thank you. Last, but not least. Identify yourself for the record.
Thank you very much for having me. My name is Simon Britten. I'm a volunteer up in Olney.
S-I-M-O-N and B-R-I-T-T-E-N. 247 I work as a volunteer up in Olney in the new WiFi zone and I work for two nonprofit organizations, Lutheran Family Service -- maybe you heard the name before -- and also for Tech PA. So for them I work -- for Lutheran Family Service I work in the senior center in the mornings and there we also have two computers in the back room where at the moment are using WiFi Philly direct Internet. So we have seniors, for example, looking up on-line to buy something, or one of them, for example, is also looking up flights because he is flying around quite often and just looking up receipts or just small things, but a result is WiFi aren't able to do that. Furthermore, we also have the computer class. We just started that about like six months ago that we have really no budget and no money, and so we got some donated computers. We 248 refurbished them and created a computer room and so now we have computers 4 connected to the WiFi Philly, and with 5 that we give computer class just 6 yesterday. I am actually a computer 7 instructor, and just yesterday evening I 8 started the sixth class, so we already 9 have more than 50 graduates. 10 And basically if you know 11 Olney, the population up there is maybe a 12 little bit poor, and most of them, they really don't have a clue what computer is and actually we just give them or start giving them the opportunity to really use the Internet. Actually, I started out explaining, but they are very, very interested in it, so the response is massive, and most of us -- all the classes were already booked and we had a huge response and it would not be possible without WiFi Philly because we would not be able to face the financial cost of the usual, regular broadband. 249 Furthermore, I also work for a swift shop, and also in the swift shop we have that is across the street we have also one computer in the back room where I create like a photo album because we get furniture donated and I put that into a photo album on the Internet so that social workers and also people around in the area can look at pictures and then order furniture. So we distribute furniture off the Internet, and that also would not be possible without WiFi Philly because we would not be able to face the cost to just have one single computer for this because it would be too expensive.
Thank you for your testimony. The Joint Committees of Technology and Information Services and Public Property and Public Works stands 250 in recess until March 30 at 4:00 p.m., and at that time it will be for public testimony only. And there will be another hearing which will be announced in the interim for all the parties that were here today from EarthLink, to the City Solicitor, to Wireless Philadelphia to answer more questions as people and Council get to absorb a lot of the information they have received. I want to thank everyone for being here today and wish you well. (The hearing adjourned at 2:30 p.m.) 251 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the Joint Committees on Technology & Information Services and Public Property and Public Works of the Council of the City of Philadelphia are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me on Friday, March 10, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ Cynthia A. Whyte, RPR (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)