The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) recently met with Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) representatives to work through the details of our planned wireless network. UPRR's functional requirements have limited some of the appropriate partners who could have participated, which has also fundamentally altered our approach to procuring service. To best ensure success of this process, the CCJPA is working with our only successful Request for Information (RFI) partner (from CCJPA's previous public process to test technology solutions), to jointly develop a business case can satisfy the goals of CCJPA, our RFI partner, and the prospective partners required to develop the wireless network. The reasons for these steps are covered in greater detail below.
Presuming all the business interests line up, a joint development arrangement would likely ensue and development of the network could begin. This will take some time to go through negotiations and agree to specifics on many different business arrangements.
From a timing perspective, we expect that an operational network for the entire railcar fleet will not be available until sometime in 2009 - which is probably slightly sooner than it would have been, had we utilized a traditional Request For Proposal (RFP) procurement process to procure services.
The CCJPA has been on the forefront of implementing a wireless network on our trains since we were approached for limited test trials in 2003. Since that time, through experience with those trials and a learning phase about the network's potential, we have seen technologies and business solutions improve as we move towards selection of a system. Our goal is to have a wireless network that is similar to the broadband experience you may have at home, at the office, or in a wi-fi equipped coffee shop. As well as being available for our train customer use, the CCJPA also wants to use any eventual network to improve our operations, safety/security, and the overall train experience. There are very few on-train wireless networks around the world at this time. CCJPA's network would be unique at this time for our standards for bandwidth, customer access, and operational applications.
CCJPA staff and our consultants have taken a comprehensive look at the technologies that could support a wireless (and wired, at stations) network for internet access in the trains. We learned a great deal by studying other wireless train installations around the world and took those lessons on technology and business models to compare and contrast them to our situation. Of course, learning about which technology options might work best for our system is just one part of the equation. Our research and business model analysis also involves analyzing how CCJPA could best use wireless internet to offset capital costs and ongoing operational costs, as well as generate revenue streams to subsidize Internet access for our passengers.
Combined, this understanding of technology and business model analysis and how they are intertwined helped us to develop a draft RFP document which was initiated in March 2007. Once the draft was sufficiently developed, the CCJPA approached the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) for comments. While UPRR expressed strong support and interest for the deployment of a wireless network, the CCJPA was directed to seek a solution that involves the use of licensed radio spectrum. This requirement protects the integrity of the UPRR signal system from potential interference by the CCJPA's wireless system. This approach has fundamentally changed the course (i.e., the public procurement step), but not the direction of the path we are traveling.
To explain in general terms, radio spectrum is split into licensed and unlicensed bands. The unlicensed bands are available for anyone's use (e.g., wi-fi routers, cordless phones, etc) but those devices can suffer interference problems if there are many devices in proximity to each other all trying to use the same limited resource. As proposed in our original draft RFP, the CCJPA would have been open to solutions that utilized directional antennas broadcasting in the unlicensed spectrum. However, placement of unlicensed radios in the UPRR track area has the potential to interfere with UPRR's own unlicensed communications in the track area. Given UPRR's policy and the limited universe of appropriate spectrum owners, the CCJPA is entering into direct negotiations with our RFI partner to approach licensed spectrum holders who can complete the partnership with CCJPA to develop the network.
Prior research documentation and wireless internet survey statistics are available and hosted by the California Center for Innovative Transportation (www.calccit.org), one of our vital research partners in this effort. http://www.calccit.org/projects/train2.html#Capitol
February 20, 2007 Wireless Network Update
Press Release, 3/31/06 - Request for Information (RFI) - Mobile Wireless Network