LTC 355-2013 Municipal Wi-Fi SystemF
Vit' MIAMIBEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 3S5-901,3
TO: Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and M
FROM; Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE; September 24, 2013
Z� 13 S[ -'P 2 *7 I'M a: X 9
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LETTER TO COMMISSION
bers of tqe City Commission
SUBJECT; Municipal WiFi System Utilization Statistics
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to provide statistics regarding the utilization of the
Wireless Miami Beach WiFi project.
The WiFi Miami Beach project began with an RFP issued in July of 2005. The City entered into
an agreement with IBM in March 2006. An official "wire" cutting ceremony took place on
October 30 2009 and the network entered into a reliability period of 90 days during which the
network was available for all users.
The network successfully performed during the reliability period and former City Manager, Jorge
Gonzalez, accepted it on January 29, 2010. After the system was accepted, as per the contract
terms, the City started to pay IBM for maintenance as detailed in Table 1. Additionally, the City
budgeted annually for replacing parts that were not covered by the maintenance and warranty
provided by IBM ($60,000) and for the cost of the FPL agreement (approximately $13,000).
Table 1: Fee Schedule
Fiscal Year
FPL Budgeted
HW Contingency
IBM Maintenance
Total
half of FY 09 -10
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 264,424.50
$ 337,424.50
FY10 -11
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 560,644.00
$ 633,644.00
FY 11 -12
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 610,024.50
$ 683,024.50
FY 12 -13
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 632,972.00
$ 705,972.00
FY 13 -14
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 651,392.00
$ 724,392.00
FY 14 -15
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 637,449.50
$ 710,449.50
half of FY 15 -16
$ 13,000
$ 60,000
$ 305,224.50
$ 378,224.50
$ 91,000
$ 420,000
$ 3,662,131
$ 4,173,131
The WiFi system has a Portal component that creates, tracks and controls users login accounts
and their access of the WiFi network. The initial Portal system that was implemented at system
acceptance was not capable of deleting accounts based on user inactivity. As a result of this,
the number of accounts created from the date of acceptance to September 25, 2012, was over
240,000. However, since the initial Portal was not capable of deleting inactive accounts, it was
difficult to gauge the size of the active user pool. The initial Portal was replaced on September
25, 2012 and the new Portal began to maintain user accounts based on the following two rules:
1. Users who identified themselves as residents during the account creation process would
have their accounts deleted after 6 months of not logging in.
2. Users who identified themselves as visitors during the account creation process would
have their accounts deleted after 3 months of not logging in.
Using these two rules, the new Portal started to delete inactive accounts as highlighted below:
Date
Total Registered Users
Inactive Registered Users Deleted
4/9/13
35,600
15,108
4/10/13
20,492
4/29/13
23,424
3,162
4/30/13
20,262
5/30/13
24,815
4,735
5/31/13
20,080
6/29/13
24,214
5,578
6/30/13
18,636
7/30/13
23,068
4,875
7/31/13
18,193
8/30/13
23,287
4,736
8/31/13
18,551
Additionally, the most current utilization statistics provide the following highlights:
• In the past two weeks (week of September 9 and September 16) the following number of
users have used the system:
• every day = 247 users (Approximately 60 Residents and 185 Visitors)
• at least three days a week = 1,119 users (Approximately 280 Residents and 840
Visitors)
• at least once = 3,619 users (Approximately 850 Residents and 2,770 Visitors)
• The average age of all active user accounts is 87 days,
• There are approximately 15,000 visitor accounts and 5,000 resident accounts.
The City asked IBM to provide an estimated annual cost savings based on redesigning the
system from providing coverage citywide to providing coverage at select locations. Although
IBM presented scenarios using approximately one -half and one - fourth as many WiFi routers as
are currently installed and maintained, the annual associated savings in maintenance would
only range from $55,000 to $77,000.
In fiscal year 2013/14, the City plans to re -scope the municipal WiFi project to deliver an
enhanced WiFi signal to select facilities, rather than citywide, thereby reducing the need for
annual funding from approximately $720,000 to $200,000. The City's IT department will work
closely with Executive Staff to determine the select facilities and implementation schedule.