Some time ago I wrote about ArNET, the wireless network of the municipality of Argyroupolis. The project is intriguing by the fact that this is the only large scale municipal wireless network in Greece. So, I asked an interview with ArNET management and Mr. Stefanos Paschalides, General Manager of ArNET, and Mrs. Isidora Lazaridou, Development Advisor of ArNET gladly accepted my invitation.
The interesting thing in ArNET is that it was not financed by EU funds (something that has become a norm in the country, lately). ArNET is expecting a ROI in less than 1.5 year from now (much sooner than initially anticipated). The reason is that ArNET has contributed to significant economies of scope and cost reductions for other municipal ICT projects (e.g. e-training, e-learning, enabled municipal participation in National/European projects etc.)
Mr. Paschalides, thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you the details of ArNET. Please introduce us to the network.
Stefanos Paschalides (SP): ArNET is a mesh wireless network that covers a large part of the city geography and provides access services to the citizens and visitors. It also complements the set of services offered by DEADA (ed. the municipal company running the network) to the municipal administration. The project primary goals are:
a) To address the lack of high-speed connections in the area which is the results of the bad quality of the copper network that is currently deployed in Argyroupolis
b) To facilitate interconnection of public services with commuting public servants (that may need to work outside of their offices
c) To enhance municipal inter-building communications
When did you envisage the creation of ArNET, and how did you put your plans into action?
SP: The project was envisaged back in 2006 and was influenced by the municipal network of Chaska, Minnesota, and the then plans of the city of Philadelphia for the creation of an analogous network. At the beginning, we ran a pilot from May to September 2006 that interconnected two municipal buildings and covered a small area of the city. The pilot was successful; therefore, DEADA took on the project to the next level. The first installations started in January 2007. The network deployment lasted until October 2007 and since then we operate in full.
That’s very fast, indeed.
SP: The interesting part is that the whole project was completed in almost 1.5 years, including preliminary studies, the preparation of the RfP, the tender and the selection process. The network is in operation since March 2007, 3 months after the installation of the first equipment. At the time, only 15% of the city was covered but ArNET, yet we already offered services.
We used the studies made in Chaska and Philadelphia, and we adjusted them to our case, for example, civil infrastructure and geographical particularities. For example, Argyroupolis lies on a hill side while Philadelphia is built in an area surrounded by hills. Chaska on the other hand is a very similar to Argyroupolis. They have the same more or less geography, size and population and additionally, both cities are using the same vendor – Tropos Networks.
So what is the technology that ArNET is based upon and what is the current coverage of the network?
SP: Now the network covers 75% of the city. Not all parts of the city have strong signal. There are still places in the city that the signal can be weak. For a passing-by user of the network that means that if he uses the network while driving he may experience some connection hick-ups when passing through areas with lower quality signal.
We use 2 types of access points: one that provides b/g type of Wi-Fi and another that provides a & b/g type of Wi-Fi. For backhaul interconnection we use directional Wi-Fi links. The backhaul network that aggregates the access points to the gateways operates at 9 meters above the ground. There is a second level of backhaul network that aggregates the gateways to the center of the network. This operates at higher ground, on top of the buildings…
…and who is servicing ArNET with Internet feed?
SP: We have an FTTB link at the network center. We started the network with Attika Telecommunications serving as our ISP. Last year we issued an RfP and HoL won the bid.
I understand that the network is a municipal service that offers broadband connections to the citizens. But can a commercial operator offer services over the municipal network on an open access principles?
SP: The issue was raised well before the installation of the network. There were two private commercial wireless networks operating in the area. Practically you can call us competitors. Of course, there is also AWMN which have a lot of members in Argyroupoli. Many members of AWMN are consulting DEADA and are customers too.
The primary concern of the city was not to create an infrastructure to share it with third parties. We want to be able to communicate over a municipal wireless network and secure our data, with the use of a VPN for that. Also, note that the capacity of the network at the moment is not sufficient to sustain operation of more networks on it. Last and not least, we do need to point out that we have not yet received an analogous proposition from an operator.
How about if an operator requested to use ArNET’s poles to place its equipment on?
SP: Still, we haven’t had a request like that until today. If it was to be made it is the city council’s decision. But I assume that if this was for the benefit of the area and its citizens, the council would approve it.
The reasons behind the creation of ArNEt are that citizens didn’t have good service with current ADSL network. We never tried to compete with telcos. We wanted to complement the ADSL service currently in place with a wireless alternative, exactly due to the low quality of the current fixed-line offerings.
Would you say that the limited quality of ADSL helped the network take-up rates?
SP: Certainly it did. Alimos (note: a neighboring municipality), has worse problems than we do in terms of ADSL quality and people subscriber to the network although the signal is much weaker.
What type of services do you offer? And how are they priced?
SP: Everyone can use the network, whether are citizens or city visitors. We offer a variety of speeds starting from as low as 384Kbps (for simple email usage or passing travelers) up to 2Mbps. The annual service fees start at 50 Euros and climbs up to 180 Euros for the greater speeds (VAT excluded). Our pricing is very competitive.
I must note here that we tried to avoid any costs associated with billing. The subscribers pay in advance the fee corresponding to their subscription period at our offices. When the subscription period is about to expire we inform our customers about it so that they have the time to decide if they wish to continue or not.
Have the citizens embraced the network? Since the time the network operates, what would you say about the public acceptance of the network?
Isidora Lazaridou (IL): They accept it and they want it. When they relocate, or when a building is constructed and they loose signal they assume the extra cost required to increase the quality of their connection in their new premise. Some spend up to 200 euros for that, when they could simply use their laptop. According to a recent survey, 70% of our customers are happy or very happy. The primary reason for dissatisfaction is the weakness of signal (2/5). After we deployed the full network customers join simply because they want to use the network outdoors, for example when in a café.
SP: We also didn’t have citizens that disapproved wireless antennas due to health issues. We showed them the technical study for the health concerns and we informed them about the necessary procedures should they wanted to file a report or should they wanted us to withdraw an antenna. For example, the municipal services which are responsible to deal with the matter etc.
Public health concerns regarding the use of wireless is an issue. You definitely need social skills to pull it through.
IL: Yes, municipalities have an advantage on this. Citizens trust much more the people that see every day in the public services, kiosks, people that they voted for and feel that they can listen to their needs and change things for the better. There are also citizens that exclaim that they are proud for the network, and they feel it their own. They see it to be part of the public property.
Have you faced any serious commercial or competition issues? The presence of such a large scale network in Athens do raise some issues.
SP: There is definitely a serious commercial angle here. However, there is \a market that is not captured by the commercial operators. Not everyone wants to have 2,5,10 MBps connections for their leisure or their business. For example, there is a housewife that wants to visit 5 blogs with recipes. She does not want to pay or 30 Euros per month for that. She simply wants to be able to pay 50 or 100 Euros per year, and that’s enough for her. This is excellent contribution of the network to fill the digital gap in our local community.
IL: You see, ArNET gives services to citizens that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. That’s why you also see that low income families use it; because it’s cheap. In our marketing strategy, whoever has an ADSL connection and wants to use ArNET as a backup network, we offer a 20% off.
Most of the tax consultants in the areas are ArNET’s customers. This is because when in tax season, if they have a problem with their ADSL connection they are completely lost. They do need a backup alternative.
Do you advertise the network within the municipal limits? When I was in Trikala last year, everyone knew about the network. Despite any complains about it my feeling was that people considered the network to be “their own”, part of the public property.
SP: It is a huge project for a city like Trikala. For us it is simply another municipal service. Not because Argyroupoli is a better municipality than Trikala. It is simply because Argyroupoli is only a suburb of the capital and the needs are completely different. For example, if here citizens complain about not adequate ADSL speeds, the factories outside Trikala have no option for broadband (other than wireless).
Have you engaged in some sort of pubic-private partnership to operate the network?
SP: Yes, technical support is being done by an external associate. Also, network administration (software, NMS) is also outsourced to the local representative of Tropos Networks.
So you have kept management, marketing and billing in-house?
IL: And we also do the customer service/helpdesk and CPE installation. We do go to the customer. We show them how to connect; whether there is signal in their area etc. We also train people on how to use the wireless network.
How did you finance the deployment of ArNET?
SP: Finance did not come from EU funds. It was done through own capital. Currently all investments (plus advertizing) are in total 600.000 Euros. We expect the ROI in the next 18 months. This comes sooner that we have initially expected. It is due to the fact that the operation of ArNET enabled economies of scale and scope in other municipal activities. That is, the existence of infrastructure enables the municipality to cut costs, participate in projects that it would not be able to, without ArNET etc.
How do you see ArNET developing in the future? What you see your next steps to be?
SP: There are two neighboring municipalities that face similar broadband issues to Argyroupolis. These are the municipalities of Elliniko and Alimos. The mayors and public executives of these three municipalities already discuss the possibility to expand the network and essentially cover more than half of the south suburbs of the metropolitan area of Athens. We are currently exploring ways to finance the expansion.
We are also making efforts to increase the signal in our network and to implement new services. We have already implemented a tele-education service. Space is offered to any user of ArNET on this platform to store and share educational material. The most important thing is that when a school in the city goes for an educational trip in the proximity, the teachers and students can access educational resources on our platform on their laptops via ArNET.
There is still one last interesting initiative which you could also publish on your blog. Tropos Networks has extensive network deployments worldwide, for example GooglePlex. There is a scenario to create a digital European community of networks with similar infrastructures, based on Tropos equipment. Malta, Manchester, Tirana, Barcelona, several cities in germany, Kyparissia and Veroia, Metsovo are installing Tropos equipment and are thinking positively about it. Roaming services between the participating cities is one of the many practical services we could apply if/when our plans for a European digital community materialize.
I have one last thing to ask. If you were starting all over again, what you would change and would you keep the same?
SP: I would stick to our choices on hardware and software. We are very satisfied with the equipment used in our network and in our data center.
What we would do better is the network design. We would implement more wireless hot-spots with narrower coverage per hotspot and we would deploy a wider backhaul network. The backhaul implementation today limits the speeds offered to the end-users. With a larger number of aggregation points in the network we could offer services up to 4Mbps and compete directly with ADSL offerings in the area.
I guess, you will work on that while expanding the network.
SP: Of course, further development of the network will correct this issue.
Mr. Paschalides, Mrs Lazaridou, thank you very much.
SP: Thank you too
IL: Thank you.
