AT&T launches wireless infrastructure improvements map

Here’s something we’ve long championed: the ability to see wireless network infrastructure upgrades mapped in Philadelphia. With that kind of information, one could begin to pin down why cell phone service has improved on a commute to work, or where there might be opportunity for continued improvement.

AT&T announced this afternoon that it has made available a map of wireless cell sites, broadband improvements, capacity upgrades and network connection upgrades in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.

All told, the map is tracking 961 improvements to AT&T’s wireless network in Philadelphia in 2011 to date across these data points. Users can also call up the telecom’s WiFi hotspots and store locations.

And if you were looking for other local information, the company is announcing today AT&T’s local Twitter account: @att_philly.

These locally-focused initiatives are happening in other cities as well, including Dallas-Fort Worth, St. Louis, Kansas City, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis and Atlanta, according to a press release.

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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Friday Q&A: Chris Barron of Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems, an infrastructure software company based in Exton and run by four brothers, might  ride the wave of federal stimulus dollars in the region.

With more than 450 employees in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at least 300 in tech fields, Bentley is a major player in the region’s creative economy.

“Bentley has a large number of users throughout Pennsylvania designing, building, and managing infrastructure for water and waste water, roads and bridges, rail and transit, power generation and alternative energy, and green buildings and environmentally sensitive land development,” said Chris Barron, the company’s vice president for corporate marketing. “Some” of their clients will be involved with projects that will benefit from the stimulus spending, though he declined to go into specifics.

Though four brothers are the top dogs, Barron says he’s never confused them — “They are all very unique individuals,” he says — but, after the jump, he does share with us his favorite Bentley clan story and suggests, if they were superheroes, just what superheros they’d be.

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