© Aude Guerrucci/POOL/EPAFormer White House chief of staff and now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Way back in 2006, even before the iPad, then-Mayor Richard Daley proposed blanketing Chicago with Wi-Fi. That ambitious plan for wireless Internet access for computers never came to fruition.
Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who speaks often of making Chicago into a high-tech hub, is pushing a new broadband initiative that includes installing Wi-Fi in many city parks and outfitting 15 commercial corridors with a superhigh-speed "gigabit" network for business users. The plan also contemplates expanding Internet access in underserved areas.
The city believes the availability of broadband networks will give commercial users a much-needed technological boost and attract business while burnishing Chicago's tech image.
"The technological landscape has changed to the point where it's not a nice-to-have," said John Tolva, the city's chief technology officer, who recalled at least three previous attempts since 1998 to bring a next-generation network to Chicago. "This is as vital as clean drinking water, at least to the economic life of a city."
But apparently it will be up to private-sector players, universities and other groups to do the work and foot much of the bill.
The Chicago Broadband Challenge, announced Monday, is big on ideas but short on details. The city, which issued a Request for Information -- in effect, an invitation to partners -- didn't provide figures on what kind of total investment would be needed to carry out Emanuel's vision or how much it plans to spend. Officials were also mum on whether the city envisions collecting revenue from the project, but it painted a general picture of a public-private partnership, with the city providing infrastructure.
At a Monday news conference, when asked what kind of financial arrangements the city might make with private companies for freeing up municipal assets, Emanuel said he wanted to first study the responses from the RFI.
Comment: Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to turn Chicago into a "high-tech hub". But at what cost?
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