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.
The article mentions that the Alliance issued a report about its free Wi-Fi zones in which they said that the network had become one of the busiest of its kind in the world. However, the report isn't on their Web site; I'm trying to get a copy. The redundant telecom network could be used actively to provide more bandwidth to the free Wi-Fi zones, the Alliance said. [link via Craig Plunkett]