New York Group Plans Redunant Telecom Wirelessly

The Alliance for Downtown New York proposes a wireless backup plan for telecommunications .For $10 million, the Alliance proposes building a laser and microwave system that would sit on top of five of the tallest buildings in the area and have line of sight from most offices. The system would relay to two other locations, one in Manhattan and one probably in New Jersey, in the event of a loss of service.

The idea is that companies unable to bear the enormous costs of building their own similar backup systems could piggyback on the Alliance’s, which would be vendor neutral to phone companies. This might make businesses who locate in the area less concerned about being cut off from telecom in the future, come what may, although real estate agents think it won’t make a practical difference: rents are cheaper and that attracts tenants.

Guess what. The Alliance is a pet project of my boss here, and it has been for decades now. Its something he's been wanting to do for a while now, he's approached us ( Net Admins ) for something smiliar in-house, but we've shot it down just because wasn't the "right" move at the time, but hey to be directly involved in something this big is way cool :) What do you think ?

Another pet project that has been a tremendous success is the implementation of free wifi solutions downtown Manhattan. The network had become one of the busiest of its kind in the world.