Internet Essentials from Comcast: Mayor Nutter, CEO Brian Roberts unveil low-cost internet option [VIDEO]

Mayor Michael Nutter praises the Internet Essentials program from Comcast. Photo by Brian Dzenis

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

Internet Essentials, the low-cost broadband Internet program from Comcast, was launched in Philadelphia Tuesday, after first launching in Chicago in May.

Making good on another of the many commitments Comcast made to the FCC in seeking approval of its majority-stake acquisition of NBC Universal last fall, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Mayor Michael Nutter were on hand to officially announce the program at the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center in Nicetown. The Internet Essentials program allows low-income families to obtain Internet service at a rate less than what Comcast normally charges.

In addition to Chicago and Philadelphia, Internet Essentials has launched in Georgia, Delaware and Miami.

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Broadband for business: varied needs, many providers

Before the second Independents Hall location opened in 2009, volunteers installed cable for Internet services. Credit: Alex Hillman

Updated, Sept. 2, 2011: Added Cogent clarification and fixed typos.

Consumers hear a lot more about competition for residential services, but Internet service providers are equally focused on the fight for the business market in Philadelphia.

While residential customers generally get one-size-fits-all service from ISPs, business customers have wide array of needs and many companies to choose from.

“Probably one of the most competitive parts of the industry is services for businesses, it’s very profitable for different companies,” says Lee Gierczynski, Verizon spokesman.

Residential ISPs are successful because of their wide availability. Verizon and Comcast are forced to cast a wide net across the entire city, in part because they are legally required to do so, and in part because it’s the only way to make such a network profitable.

In the commercial sector, ISPs only have to respond to market forces. In Philadelphia the market includes everything from small one-user firms to large universities providing service for thousands. All of them have a variety of needs for bandwidth, but they all need service that is reliable and within their budget. All of them face a variety of interesting issues with getting service in Philadelphia.

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City: questionable gifts did not influence Verizon contracts

Business between Verizon and the city should continue as usual, officials say, even though a city employee was fired last week for taking more than $50,000 in gifts from the Verizon sales staff and an account set up to provide rewards for the city’s business with the phone company.

“Mr. James had multiple dealings with Verizon and the City has multiple contracts with the company. Each of those contracts was awarded through a competitive bid process and we have no reason to believe that the process was tampered with,” says Brian Abernathy, Chief of Staff to city Managing Director Rich Negrin.

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Where will broadband competition take Philadelphia?

A map of broadband adoption in Philadelphia prepared by Temple University researcher Charles Kaylor for the Philadelphia 2035 comprehensive plan.

Updated, Fri., July 15: Corrected typo on fact that 41 percent of Philadelphia has not adopted broadband.

For many years, broadband Internet in Philadelphia was only available to large companies and institutions with the budget to literally build connections. But Verizon‘s successful push to bring FiOS to the city has spurred Internet service providers operating in Philadelphia to compete. The result, city officials say, is that residents will pay less for better service.

Since early 2010, Verizon has been building a fiber-to-the-home network throughout the city with the goal of providing cable TV and high-speed Internet. Verizon representatives say they expect to make millions from customers looking to switch from rival Comcast.

Comcast says it welcomes the competition. But both companies and city representatives agree that city residents will win big from the deal. And in a city where broadband adoption — not physical access, but the use of commercial broadband — is low, increasing competition will be an important part of providing access to low-income individuals.

Forty-one percent of the city lacks broadband Internet in the home, according to data commissioned by the Knight Foundation and published in the city’s newly published Philadelphia 2035 comprehensive plan.

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Third public computer center launches, this time in West Philadelphia [VIDEO]

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

Recent data backs up estimates that more than half of Philadelphia households do not have access to broadband Internet.

According to a survey completed by the Knight Center and with U.S. census data, experts have determined that 41 percent of Philadelphia households do not have Internet and/or computer access.  Most of these households are in North, West and some parts of South Philadelphia and include mostly low-income African-American and Hispanic families, according to the data.

Hamidou Trare helping a student at the new PEC lab.

The City of Philadelphia is working to close the digital divide and for good reason.  In April of this year, the city’s unemployment rate hovered at 9.3 percent, nearly a half a point higher than the national average of 8.7 percent.  As Philadelphia’s economy continues transitioning from manufacturing to information technology, closing the divide could be key to attracting new jobs to Philadelphia.

“It’s a workforce issue,” said Andrew Buss, director of public programs for the City of Philadelphia’s Division of Technology.  “If we don’t have a trained, skilled workforce it will be difficult to attract employers to Philadelphia.”

Buss, along with Lindsey Keck, the program manager for the Public Computer Center Project, helped the City coordinate with a dozen partner community organizations to launch computer centers all over Philadelphia. These centers will offer public access to computers, the Internet and computer skills training.

“We recognize that in order for any Philadelphian or any American to compete in the 21st century they must have literacy skills and this includes verbal, written and computer literacy skills to survive,” said Mayor Michael Nutter during the press conference at the ‘wire-cutting’ launch ceremony of the People’s Emergency Center, located on Warren Street near Spring Garden Street in West Philadelphia.

“Computer literacy is no longer an option,” Nutter said.  “It is a true necessity.”

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Comprehensive city vision gets approved with broadband objectives

More than 150 gathered at Moore College to celebrate Philadelphia2035

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission voted unanimously last evening to approve the city’s comprehensive planning vision, Philadelphia2035, during an event honoring the process and officially kicking off implementation of the plan.

In front of more than 150 people at Moore College of Art & Design on the Parkway, Mayor Michael Nutter stopped by to congratulate the Commission, community groups and citizens on a visioning process that included months of interviews, planning, public comment and revision, before Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger called the Commission to vote.

Perhaps more relevant to our audience of technology users in Philadelphia, the evening also marked the official acknowledgment and inclusion of a plan for broadband as a vital public utility.

Describing a section of goals in the plan dedicated to utilities, Greenberger asked the crowd to imagine that “our entire population is connected virtually with state-of-the-art broadband infrastructure, further enabling life-long learning and employment access.”

“Those are great goals,” he added.

In May, Technically Philly submitted comment to the Commission solicited through reader feedback and by asking broadband leaders for their input. After careful deliberation with technology leaders in the region, the Planning Commission has added a section to the comprehensive plan’s utility section that addresses a plan for city-owned broadband infrastructure, expanding affordable access to low-income populations and encouraging technical innovation and recruitment of high-tech businesses.

The full objectives are listed below the jump, but first, be sure to check out the video package that introduces the full Philadelphia2035 city vision.

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First of dozens of city computer centers opens in Center City

Mayor Michael Nutter logged on last week at the launch of a new computer center built for Philadelphia FIGHT, at 13th and Spruce streets.

This article is part of Broadband2035, a series in partnership with PlanPhilly funded by an award from J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism to explore broadband issues to impact Philadelphia’s developing comprehensive plan.

Last week, Mayor Nutter and Congressman Bob Brady opened the first of a series of new public computer centers aimed at reaching the estimated 41 percent of city residents who do not have access to the Internet.

On Tuesday, during Philly Tech Week, the Mayor logged on at the new center at Philadelphia FIGHT, an HIV/AIDS support organization — at 13th and Spruce streets, kicking off the federal grant-funded program. FIGHT has for more than a decade provided internet resources for people affected by HIV in the city.

“You should be able to get the information you need, access to services and programs all over the place,” Mayor Nutter said. “This is the future of this city, and it’s from a technology perspective.”

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Planning Commission accepting final round of comments for comprehensive plan

Anyone interested in offering a final round of feedback to the Planning Commission about broadband infrastructure’s inclusion in the Philadelphia 2035 comprehensive plan should join the Commission this Thursday afternoon.

On April 14, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., staffers will take input on the “Connect” section of the plan … All meetings will be in the Planning Commission meeting room at 1515 Arch St., on the 18th floor.

[via PlanPhilly: Neighborhood groups want more input in 2035 comprehensive plan]

And don’t forget, the Planning Commission will be discussing innovation at our Philly Tech Week headquarters at WHYY on Wednesday, April 27. More information and free reservation available here.

Planning Commission sees opportunity in short-term broadband goals for comprehensive plan

Illustration based on Philadelphia: Metropolis in Transition's archive

Philadelphia’s 1960 comprehensive plan was an effort to usher the city’s infrastructure into the future.

Back then, the plan called for build-out that Philadelphians today utilize daily, like the creation of a new tunnel for commuter rail that would cut through Center City to meet peak-hour demands and an expressway that would help connect the city to the suburbs.

For the first time since that plan was drafted more than 60 years ago, the city planning commission is undertaking a new long-term vision for the city’s built environment.

The Philadelphia 2035 Comprehensive Plan will eventually modify zoning around commercial corridors and industrial centers, and lay out new infrastructure and transit lines says Alan Urek, Director of Strategic Planning and Policy at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. And the commission hopes it will result in improving the city’s economy, health and environmental impact.

On the ground, the plan looks at ways to improve center city’s stature as a metropolitan center, and increase investment in the city’s neighborhoods and former industrial zones. Specific projects include transit on Roosevelt Boulevard connecting the Far Northeast to the Broad Street Line, transit-oriented development at SEPTA’s North Philadelphia station, near Temple University, and greening of city schoolyards for use as neighborhood parks.

Broadband advocates argue that creation of new fiber networks have become just as important as other forms of infrastructure, like the water system and public utilities that traverse the earth beneath the city. And recent broadband stimulus projects awarded to Philadelphia support the role that government can play in funding long-term broadband projects.

But in Philadelphia’s new comprehensive plan [PDF], there’s little direction on how the city can increase high-speed connectivity, improve adoption, and ultimately, help bridge the digital divide.

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“Broadband is available, but the overall quality of that experience is highly variable,” says Drexel Research Vice Provost

While interviewing Drexel University Vice Provost Deb Crawford last month, she highlighted research that particularly interested us, in our future of broadband coverage.

A timely example that might be of interest to your readers is research that is being done by Tony Grubesic, from Drexel’s i-school, and his colleagues. Tony’s team has combined the use of GIS and mathematical programming to develop a spatial optimization model for improving both market coverage and quality of service (QOS) for digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure provision. Their work explores how supply-side factors can influence the quality of service for broadband subscribers. While issues concerning the digital divide are typically discussed in the context of urban v. rural – there are more subtle divides present in most urban areas. Broadband is available, but the overall quality of that experience is highly variable – a function of pricing, location, etc… This research is timely as Philly expands broadband access and opportunities available to its citizens through projects like Freedom Rings undertaken by the Urban Affairs Coalition and its partners, including Drexel, with funding from the Recovery Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities program.

Download the full paper here [PDF].