CITY OF HOUSTON REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR PRIVATE FINANCING & MANAGEMENT OF A WIRELESS BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE
May 17, 2006 -- The City of Houston has received 5 proposals for the private financing and management of a wireless broadband infrastructure across the entire City.
"We're going to use technology to help us meet some of our most important goals - making City Hall more efficient and responsive, making it easier to do business here, and improving Houstonians' quality of life," said Mayor Bill White.
The objectives of this initiative include:
Reducing the City government cost for mobile computing, i.e. parking meters, traffic signals, maintenance crews, field inspections, video and photography in police cars, maps and building plans in fire and EMS vehicles;
Reducing the monthly cost of broadband for residential and small business users from $30-$50 to $10-$20; and
Bridging the digital divide for disadvantaged communities/ individuals and promoting economic development and conventions/tourism.
The Request for Proposal (RFP) process was initiated as a result of the Greater Houston Partnership's publication of a white paper in October of 2005 calling for this type of initiative. Houston's initiative is similar to that of Philadelphia where Earth Link financed a $25 million network and San Francisco, which has selected the team of Google and Earth Link to negotiate an $8 million to $10 million investment for the Bay Area.
Houston's network would have three tiers of service:
A. Public service includes parking meters, traffic signals, maintenance crews, field inspectors, etc.;
B. Public Access for households, small businesses, tourisms, and conventioneers at affordable rates available across the city/region; and
C. Public Safety, i.e., police, fire, emergency medical services as the technologies improve and security concerns are addressed.
The proposals will be the subject of a three-phase evaluation / selection process over several months. There will be an initial rating with the selection of the higher-rated proposers being invited to submit responses to a 2nd phase proposal template to allow a meaningful comparison and rating based on the selection criteria included in the RFP i.e. value to community, value to City government, financial capacity, experience and deployment strategy and plan. The evaluation team will be executives with IT responsibilities from several City departments.
The City Council's Transportation Aviation and Infrastructure Committee has scheduled a briefing on this initiative for Thursday, June 8, 2006, 2:00 p.m. at City Hall, in City Council Chambers.
