The Co-op
Experience
September 2007
WiFi Boston: Helping the
City Go Wireless
by
Paula Lyons ‘09
As
a
Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, awarded each year to
fourteen
Boston-area law students, I worked in the City of Boston Law Department
for my
first co-op where I helped structure the legal and policy contours of
the
City’s new wireless Internet initiative. The
goals of this ambitious project,
introduced by Mayor Thomas Menino,
are to minimize the digital divide, promote economic development,
stimulate
innovation, and improve the quality and efficiency of City services.
During
the
summer, I interacted with many interested parties, including local
government
departments and OpenAirBoston (OAB), the private, non-profit entity
responsible
for building and managing the network. My
duties included reviewing and drafting
relevant contracts and
analyzing property interests affected by the wireless initiative. I managed the logistics of license agreements
and permits to mount radios on light poles and municipal buildings,
analyzed
the bylaws of OAB and its application for non-profit status, and
drafted key
contractual provisions defining the relationship between the City and
OAB. At the MuniWireless07 Conference, I
helped
present some of the legal issues that cities should consider when
undertaking
such a large, multi-dimensional project. I
also researched and surveyed wireless
initiatives in other
municipalities, including Philadelphia,
San Francisco, Houston, Minneapolis,
Winston-Salem,
and South Bend. Boston’s
approach is unique due to its use of a non-profit organization to build
and
manage the network.
By establishing a
wireless network covering the entire city at approximately half the
cost of the
current commercial rate, the initiative will provide great benefits to Boston’s
residents,
businesses, universities, and visitors. There
is already a pilot program to test the
technology using twenty
families in the Grove Hall neighborhood. The
opportunity to be involved in such a
complex, real-time project is
one of the reasons why I chose to attend Northeastern University School
of Law
with its unique, cooperative legal education program.
It is a privilege to be an integral part of
the community while at the same time sharpening my legal skills.
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