Apartment WIFI How-To (So Far)
Case Studies and Lessons Learned by MAPC through the Mass Broadband Institute Gateway City WiFi Fund
Thank you's!
MassUp Coalition
Path to Apartment WiFi Overview
About Apartment WiFi
Procuring Service
Working with an IT Contractor
Hurdles: Financial & Administrative
Support Programming
Q&A
Site Selection
About Apartment WiFi
In America's most unconnected communities, where 38% of households do not have home broadband, 20-25% of the digital divide is concentrated in multi-dwelling units.
- Education Superhighway
In Massachusetts, there are about 225,000 households that do not have an internet subscription.
Key Opportunity:
Local Housing Authorities
240 Housing Authorities in Massachusetts
About 90,000 units of low income housing for families, seniors, and persons with disabilities.
Free Apartment WiFi Model:
1 very high-speed internet connection supports an entire building
WiFi Hot Spots or “Access Points” in common areas are linked to connection.
Residents can access free, high-speed internet, without subscription.
Benefits:
Eliminate barriers to signing up for internet subscriptions or subsidies.
Save residents money.
Create infrastructure that can be expanded upon.
Source: Education Superhighway, No Home Left Offline. 2021.
How We Selected Sites
Key to our work so far
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Housing authority administrators,
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IT Directors,
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Facilities Managers,
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Community Outreach Coordinators,
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Executive Directors.
Leverage existing connections or research who will be important persons at the housing authority and municipal government who can support your project.
Find Your Champions
Building Typology and layout
Resident Demographics
Number of Units
Available Public Assets and Infrastructure
Synergistic digital device and literacy programs
Factors to Evaluate:
Factors to Evaluate Data
Conduct an Initial Site Visit
Catalogue existing equipment and assets and make connections
Cable/Fiber in utility closet
Rooftop telecom equipment
Telephone poles On site
Conduct an Initial Site Visit
As well as community spaces, public areas, and other social assets
Apartment WiFi Test Cases
Chelsea
Prattville Site
120 Units Family Housing
Everett
Glendale Tower Site
120 Units Senior/Disabled Housing
Revere
Rose Pomona Site
200 Units Family Housing
Apartment WiFi Test Cases
Chelsea
Prattville Site
120 Units Family Housing
Revere
Rose Pomona Site
200 Units Family Housing
Everett
Glendale Tower Site
120 Units Senior/Disabled Housing
How We Are Procuring Internet Service
With sites selected, we leveraged the Massachusetts Operational Services Division ITT72 Statewide Contract for pre-approved commercial ISP vendors.
Leveraged State Contract
Speed of Service = Number of Households X Desired Service Levels
So...
25 mps upload & download X 100 Households = 2.5 gps Speed
Network administrators can always upgrade speed once ISP fiber/fixed wireless infrastructure is in place.
But!
That assumes maximum use of internet by all users at any given time.
How much internet do you need?
The rough estimate:
Anticipated Internet Use At Our Selected Sites
Network administrators can always upgrade speed once ISP fiber/fixed wireless infrastructure is in place.
Speed of Service = Number of Households X Desired Service Levels
The rough estimate:
MAPC plans to use a 1 Gps speed package for each of the three selected sites.
We received two quotes from vendors who can serve the properties, costs ranged from $1,250 - $1,500 per month.
Anticipated Internet Use At Our Selected Sites
Lessons Learned for Negotiating Service Contracts:
- ISP assume installation costs
- Share competition's quotes
- Request multiyear contracts
- Provide ISP's access to infrastructure (rooftops)
Key Decision Point:
Outreach and Community Support/Inclusion
Text
Family Housing Outreach - Chelsea/Revere
Senior Housing Outreach - Everett
Senior Housing Outreach - Everett
Steps for working with IT Contractors
Existing IT service provider for Housing Authority, municipality or landlord
State Contract ITC73
Wireless Broadband Alliance, Google
1. Identified an IT Contractor
Budget Parameters
Floor plans, existing infrastructure
Site assets identified in earlier phases.
2. We prepared the following information for them:
3. IT Vendor Walkthrough
This step could be consolidated with our earlier walkthrough. We connected IT Vendor with Housing Authority Administrators to schedule a site survey/walk through.
Draft WiFi Heatmap
Chelsea Prattville, Stairwell Access Points and In-Unit Repeaters
Financial Sustainability
Oversight Approvals
Contracts
Hurdles
Biggest Challenge: Ongoing financial commitment to support internet service, maintenance, and any software subscriptions needed to support equipment (OPEX).
The municipality may be the best entity to support ongoing service costs.
Financial Commitments
After determining who will be responsible for the ongoing financial commitments, the housing authority board must approve the project in order to move forward.
Housing authorities have boards appointed by the city council or municipal executive.
Board Approval
Service Level Agreements: dictate the network uptime, speeds, response times and responsibilities for maintenance (IT Vendor contract)
Contracts
Network Ownership: The owner of the network may dictate other uses for the network—advertising, data offloading, and ability to resell the network.
Liability: The owner of the network will also take on liability, setting Terms of Service and assuming responsibility for network safety.
Evaluation and Adoption
After network deployment, encourage adoption by:
- Digital literacy training
- Resource sharing
- workforce development
- tech education
- community organizing
Similarly, an evaluation plan should be put in place to monitor network usage, adoption, user experience and other criteria.
*Consider installing a network splash page that shares community resources