The purpose of the Engineering proposal was to work collaboratively with a group and come up with an innovation. This innovation should be supported by outside and reliable sources.
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Final Draft
Date: 05/14/2020
To: Governor Andrew Cuomo
From: Shadman Rahman, Margulan Zhanay, Monjurul Hossain, Serge B
Subject: Free Internet Connectivity Throughout New York City
Purpose:
The purpose of this proposal is to improve the distribution of LinkNYC, a free public wifi service, throughout New York City. By analyzing the poor public Wi-Fi service, we can provide a plan for improving security and increasing the coverage area of the internet connection.
Summary:
Free Public wifi isn’t a new innovation in New York City. But it can be improved upon. The main issues of this service is the low coverage range and poor cybersecurity. However, these issues can be solved. Results from the plan of work shows many methods of making wifi service more safe and available. For this, according to our calculations, another 7500 kiosks should be installed in the city, each of which will cost about $25.000 to $30.000. In order to recoup all costs, we will need to display advertising and create partnerships with other companies. In order to install new kiosks, the project will be distributed in stages of 12 years, which includes the installation of software, locations of installation, conversion from telephone lines to broadband lines and others. We plan to work with reputable companies to ensure adequate service.
Introduction:
The Internet is one of the things that modern Americans are connected to no matter where they go, and mobile devices help us with this. Being connected 24/7 is already becoming essential for many people, since every minute becomes valuable, especially when it comes to New Yorkers. For example, unlike in the past, today if you get lost, you use your phone as a map to get directions, and to use the map you need WiFi connection. New York City already has an early form of free internet connectivity, this is known as, “LinkNYC”. The Department of Information Technology & Communication in New York City has established kiosks in late 2015 throughout the city for residents. This system is in its early steps but it can be majorly improved. According to the LinkNYC usage statistics, in the last week of December 2019, more than 13 million sessions per week were recorded in NYC. These kiosks provide free high-speed Wi-Fi, nationwide calling, a 911 button, and charging ports for electronic devices. Despite this, the research shows that in many areas in New York City, there are little to no internet access points for two reasons: either they are not activated, or they are not available in the area. Also, the biggest issue of these wireless kiosks is that they are prone to be compromised by hackers, where they can extract personal information. This release of personal information can paint a bad picture for the city’s security. Therefore, safety must be ensured for using LinkNYC WiFi, as well as increasing the number of kiosks for other boroughs that do not have access to the service.
Map of established LinkNYC kiosks in New York City
Plan of work/Proposed program:
First, this early system of free public wifi isn’t available throughout all of New York City, it is only available in the major tourist attractions of New York City. Many tourists are able to utilize the free connection. However, many New Yorkers cannot use the “LinkNYC” connection because it isn’t available in their area. The first plan of action is to implement more LinkNYC stations throughout New York City. This can be done so more New Yorkers can use the connection stations throughout New York. Throughout the help of these devices the city is supposed to unite digitally, but the areas that need it the most are being left out. In an article found on Curbed named, “Manhattan and Bronx Only Beneficiaries of City’s Free Wi-Fi Kiosks To Date”, by Zoe Rosenberg, states, “the kiosks have focused mostly on Manhattan, angering outer-borough residents”(Rosenberg 1). This explains how only the main borough in New York City is getting the support for free internet connection, while the other boroughs have to deal with not being able to advance as the other boroughs are.Many residents that aren’t located in Manhattan region deal with major frustrations due to the lack of public wifi . The ideal method to introduce more wireless connection kiosks is by converting the old payphones that are dysfunctional. The kiosks can replace the payphones by converting the voice lines from the payphones and turning it into a broadband (Internet) line.
Also, public internet connections are never safe. There will always be people that will use public internet connections for malicious purposes. Such as retrieving personal information and even the distribution of malware. The second plan of action is to assemble and hire a cyber security team that can ensure that there is no malicious activity in the public connection. This security team can implement measures that can block certain websites from being accessed due to its poor reputation and the harm that can be done from it. According to an article from Norton Security, named, “ Why Hackers Love Public Wifi”, it states, “594 million people around the world were victims of cybercrime in 2015” (Norton 1). Norton explains how many of these hackers receive this information from public wifi. Keep in mind, that these results were found in 2015, where people weren’t as dependent toward their wireless connection. However, in 2020, everyone needs a wireless connection throughout.
their everyday lives to stay connected. More personal information gets stored, such as banking and medical information, and even legal information. If any of this information had been hacked from public wifi, the victim can possibly press charges toward the city.
Finally, to be able to have a city with a free internet connection, service providers will be needed to not only provide the service but also the kiosks need to output the service. The biggest company according to the article, “Whatever happened to municipal Wi-Fi?”, from The Economist, by G.F, is Google which provides most of the states in the United States. Google has a new internet service known as Google Fiber. These kiosks are an adequate opportunity for Google to showcase their new service. This is a win-win situation for both Google and the New York public. And Comark and Antenna Design can assist in designing the kiosks, to ensure the kiosks can withstand the harsh elements of New York City.
Timeline:
This project has a scheduled completion within 12 years. From designing, receiving approval from the city, and construction. To receive approval from the city to begin the project, it will take approximately one year. For planning on where the kiosks will be located and identify improvements, it will take about two to three years, with the assistance of the company, CIVQ, where they specialize in city planning. Seeking providers can take up to one year and will overlap with planning. Then the immense part of this project is construction and conversion of the phone and broadband lines. This can take about eight years. And finally, to end off with the project, it will take about one year to develop softwares to be able to interact with the kiosk and as well as display advertising for revenue.
Budget:
The city’s estimated cost for the deployment of 7,500 LinkNYC kiosks is set to be around $200 million dollars. This leads to an estimated cost per unit of in between $25,000 to $30,000. The distribution of these Links are set at a steady pace of 938 units per year. Over this 12 year deal period in order to break even each kiosk are expected to generate over $6,500 in ad revenue. Display ads, sponsorships, and partnerships that run along these kiosks are expected to generate over 500 million dollars over the next 12 years. Despite the fact that revenue fell short of expectations within the first two years the city collected $43.4 million in payments, narrowly beating the $42.5 million minimum.
| Total Units deployed 7500 |
| Deal length (years) 12 |
| Cost per Unit $25,000-30,000 |
| Minimum Annual Revenue
to the City $ 17,500,000 |
| Minimum Total Revenue to $ 210,000,000 (Projected)
the City |
| Estimated Project Cost $ 200,000,000 |
| Revenue needed to Breakeven $410,000,000 (Projected) |
Qualifications:
Our team consists of members who are dedicated to identify, understand and interpret the constraints of a design/project and thus produce a successful result/resolution. The following innovation listed in this proposal depicts a sole purpose of serving all the communities of NYC fairly regardless of their area. As the residents of the deprived community and also on behalf of the people who have been deprived from the facilities, we would like to advocate for the following proposal. The members of our team are all committed to attain the compatibility of online networking and telecommunication across the city.
We plan to work with many reputable companies such as Alphabet, Norton Security, Comark, Antenna Design, and CIVQ. Alphabet is also known as Google. Google is well known for its cloud services and newly developed internet service. Google will ensure its
service is safe and reliable to increase credibility to their new service. Norton is also a well known service that protects users from malware and also suspicious internet activity. Many companies also use Norton Security for their business. Some of these businesses are Airgas and Edison Learning. Comark and Antenna Design can work together designing the kiosks. Comark is known for constructing outdoor structures. Comark is a viable option because they ensure many safety measures towards their product, this will ensure no user will be hard, even during harsh weather conditions. Finally CIVQ, which is a company that specializes in smart city planning. Their planning could be utilized in order to properly implement the kiosks according to the places in need of it. The company can later set taxes and policies to the usage of these kiosks thus generating a sustainable city for the people of NYC. Our project’s main funding will be provided by the company Alphabet, a primary revenue generation model selling digital advertisements. We believe in the revenue generating capabilities of this company and put our trust in them regarding our project. They will generate the revenue by charging companies to advertise on the electronic billboards/wifi kiosk. During the year of 2017 Q1 reports the 88% of Alphabets 90 billion in revenue came from digital advertising fees which depicts a potential success rate of this company in which we enlist our hope in.
References:
Wiggers, K. (2018, October 01). LinkNYC’s 5 million users make 500,000 phone calls each month. Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/29/linknycs-gigabit-kiosks-hit-1-billion-sessions-and-5 -million-users/
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. (2020, January 09). LinkNYC Usage Statistics: NYC Open Data. Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/LinkNYC-Usage-Statistics/69wu-b929
Link: Advertising Capabilities. (2020, April 09). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://www.intersection.com/product/link-advertising/
Voytko, L. (2019, May 06). Payphone-Replacing LinkNYC Kiosks Not Generating Projected Revenue. Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/8502-city-s-much-heralded-link-kiosks-not-generating-projected-revenue
Why Those LinkNYC Kiosks Keep Getting More Interesting. (2018, June 01). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://thebridgebk.com/linknyc-kiosks-keep-getting-interesting/
