4210-02-19 Downtown Sanford, NC Public Wi-Fi Question and Answer
Section .8
1. A television station exists at 204 St. Clair Ct. in the downtown area, I am asking this broadcast group if they would consider an attachment agreement for the winner of this RFP so that it could be used in the deployment if desired.
After speaking with the television station, attachment to this tower could be made via an attachment rental agreement and the cost is $250 per month.
Section .9
1. 1. May provider install pedestals at various points in County designated coverage area in lieu of or in addition to AP installations on power company poles and/or City/County owned land/buildings? This answer to this is not an emphatic no, however it is imperative to all the partners seeking this service that the aesthetics of the Downtown area not be negatively affected. It is a possibility but it will all depend on what the end design looks like and if the total package is strong enough to warrant the aesthetic factor that pedestals bring into the equation.
2. 2. Will County grant two week extension of RFP submission? We cannot grant an extension on the due date of the RFP.
3. 3. Does County have preference of which building the Fiber Internet Access is installed? We would prefer that the fiber be installed in a City or County owned building, but this is not absolutely necessary.
4. 4. Will County provide rack space and power in environmentally acceptable room of whatever building selected and agreed to by provider and County for Fiber Internet Access? I don't think this will be an issue to grant, especially if it is a City or County owned building. If a privately owned building, then an additional agreement may need to be entered into between the RFP winner and the building owner but proxied by Lee County and its partners per the desired result of the RFP.
Section 1
1) Are the light post photocell powered or do they have a 120v AC adapter available? The light poles are continuously powered and the light fixtures themselves are controlled by photocells individually on each light.
2) If photocell, is the light bank switched? No, see above.
3) If photocell, is it a fixed photocell adapter (e.g., Luco PD), 3-prong, or 7-pin? Each pole has a separate receptacle plug to connect external lighting/WIFI equipment to.
4) Is the power 24/7? Yes.
5) What is the max client counts that need to be supported? This is a hard question to answer, on a typical day there are probably no more than 100 people concurrently outside in our downtown area. However when we have events in the area, there can be upwards of 1 or 2 thousand in a given place but we don’t have large events with great frequency.
6) Is the City providing the Firewall, DHCP services and Internet?... The city will not be providing firewall, DHCP services, or Internet (at the very least we would expect DHCP and Internet connectivity as part of the RFP proposal)
7) What other assets are available to mount access points or other hardware? The only other assets in the area are buildings. There is a radio station downtown that might let us attach to their tower, the building owners are excited so we should be able to use several of the buildings downtown as antenna/radio locations.
8) Is the City supplying any fiber connections to deliver network connectivity to feed the access points? If so, what is available? The City will not be supplying fiber connections to feed the access points. However Windstream Communications fiber is located throughout the downtown as well as Spectrum fiber and coaxial.
9) Are there any other applications the City wants to utilize with the Wi-Fi network? The largest “other” application the City would like is a splash page when a user first connects to the network so that advertising and terms of use can be performed and possibly we can collect an email address or other information if needed.
10) Is it just the street front areas that need coverage? Not in the parking lot areas in the middle of the block? Street frontage is critical, but we would want the entire area to be covered. Obviously people won’t be stopping in the middle of the street to check their email or surf the web but we want the transition from APs to be smooth as people traverse throughout the area of downtown. The parking areas wouldn’t be as critical but of course the more coverage we have is the better as people like to sit in their vehicles and work remotely etc.
11) Where will we be able to tie into the wired network? There are a few buildings in the area that could work for the wired tie in and they are as follows:
The following addresses are addresses in our Downtown area where either the City or County owns the land and/or property or there are business owners that we are almost certain would be interested in allowing equipment on their asset. Again, Duke energy light poles also cover the area and are equipped with 120V power connections and can be attached to for a monthly fee per pole. Additionally, to our knowledge both Windstream communications and Spectrum business/enterprise would both be able to serve as back end ISPs and or last mile providers to any of these buildings if needed.
Lee County Parks and Recreation – 147 McIver Street
Lee County Library – 107 Hawkins Avenue
Lee County Elections – 225 S. Steele Street
Depot park building – 106 Charlotte Avenue
Lee County School board – 106 Gordon Street
The three below are privately owned but we are almost 100% positive the owners would have no issue of using their assets for wireless infrastructure needs.
Buggy building – 115 Chatham Street
Furniture building – 102 S. Steele Street
Lutterloh building – 201 Chatham street
Other than this, building partnership relationships would have to be entertained. There is also a radio antenna at a radio station that might allow attachments.
12) What are acceptable mounting methods for the wireless access points? The APs could be mounted on the tops of buildings and/or street lights, the downtown area is covered in street lights owned by Duke Energy (more information on that below).
13) If there is local fiver how will we be able to power the outdoor APs? As far as powering the APs outside of attaching them to the street lights, I would think it possible to tie into the power on some of the buildings mentioned above.
Section 2
1. Is there a defined and approved budget in place for the wireless network? If so what is it? There is currently no defined or approved budget for this project, once an RFP is chosen then staff will decide if it is in the budgetary range that makes sense for us to develop a contract and if so, budget will be allocated at that time.
2. Is the network intended for outdoor coverage only? Or is there a need for indoor coverage as well? Only outdoor coverage is required.
a. If indoor coverage is required, what signal level is needed and where? N/A
3. Does the winner of the RFP also need to provide internet services as part of the project? Yes, the RFP winner must supply Internet service in order that the outdoor Wi-Fi network will be able to maintain Internet connectivity wherever it is available in the DT area.
4. Can the county identify where internet connections are present for use with the proposed wireless network?
a. What type (Cable? Fiber? DSL?) and what speed? DSL, Cable, and Fiber connectivity are available in the downtown area. It is the responsibility of the RFP responder to work with available ISPs to determine locations and viability for speed/equipment placement etc. We would expect to see multiple bandwidth options and the associated costs of each as part of the RFP response (i.e. 200Mbps, 500Mbps, 1Gbps backbone)
5. Is there a fiber network owned by either the county or the City of Sanford? There is no fiber network owned by either the County or City that is part of this project.
a. If so can this fiber network be used by the proposed wireless network? N/A
6. Can light poles and utility poles be used for wireless equipment? Yes light poles are throughout the downtown area and can be attached to for a monthly fee per pole which would also be the responsibility of the RFP winner. Responsibility would include but not be limited to obtaining and maintaining attachment permits from Duke Energy, monthly costs for attachment, etc.
7. Can city owned buildings be used for wireless equipment? Yes both City, County, and privately owned building may be used for wireless equipment.
8. Can privately owned buildings be used for wireless equipment? Yes this is a possibility depending on the building owner and their preference.
9. Does the city own communications towers that can be used for wireless equipment? No
10. Are there any high density areas where a high volume of users is: No, the volume is spread fairly evenly in most areas of the downtown.
11. anticipated such as events in parks? During event times such as events in the park, there may be a higher volume of traffic at those times. Typically we estimate 50 to 100 users in the downtown area concurrently and on busier days this number may increase up to 200 to 250 but this wouldn’t be sustained and during large event times this number could escalate to 2000 to 3000 or more possibly. There aren’t often large events in the park and downtown area that would produce the large numbers, maybe 6 to 8 per year.
12. How many users are anticipated on the network on an average day? Peak day? See number 11
13. Is there a requirement for authentication to access the network?
a. Login? We won’t require a login with password, the network will be Open.
b. Splash page? We would like a splash page wherein other downtown businesses may advertise and where we may collect an email address or some other piece of information if we choose prior to allowing the device onto the network.
c. Acceptable Use Policy that must be agreed to in order to access the network? This would be preferable, a typical acceptable use policy that would specifically discourage illegal and unethical practices and anything else the RFP winner might think is critical.
d. Per user bandwidth limiting? Depending on the backbone connection that we are comfortable with we may need to utilize bandwidth limiting so this would be a plus in the RFP response.
14. Who will manage and monitor the wireless network? The RFP winner.
a. Who will perform maintenance such as AP replacement? The RFP winner.
Files:
Duke Energy Lighting Attachments
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