How Shreveport, Louisiana, used blockchain technology to build an affordable public WiFi network
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Then Shreveport, Louisiana, employee Keith Hanson as Chief Technology Officer and Director of Smart Cities in 2019, the city’s mayor asked him to address the digital divide and create a smarter city. Both measures would require expanding broadband internet, making it one of Hanson’s earliest priorities.
When he took the helm of Shreveport’s IT department, Hanson said he tried to understand the city’s digital infrastructure and Internet access. He was initially baffled by the city’s digital divide: There was broadband infrastructure close to almost every home, but many people apparently lacked internet access.
To understand the scale of the problem and create a map of internet coverage, Hanson’s team installed Raspberry Pi computers on the city’s garbage trucks and used location data to identify WiFi networks in the city. They soon made a startling discovery: About 40% of Shreveport had no WiFi coverage, and almost all of the dead spots were in historically underserved communities, Hanson said.
“This [was] a huge divide,” Hanson said.
Hanson began meeting with telecommunications companies in 2020 to figure out how to extend internet service to communities where it was lacking and get the broadband service Shreveport needed for its smart city infrastructure. Near the end of a promising meeting, Hanson asked when Shreveport would get 5G wireless connectivity and was told the city had a low priority for 5G deployments.
At that point, Hanson realized the city needed to address the digital divide on its own. Big telecom companies often don’t invest in poorer communities like Shreveport, he said, where approx 1 in 4 people live below the federal poverty line.
“They’re still in this to go where the money is,” Hanson said, while the city primarily wants to invest in areas that do not have enough internet access.
Although the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program offers financial assistance to help low-income households buy Internet service from traditional providers, many eligible households don’t sign up because it’s too difficult to navigate, Hanson said. The program also does not cover related expenses such as internal wiring fees, which cost about $200 and are necessary to install broadband Internet service in the older homes that many lower-income people live in, he said. According to the FCC, the ACP program only provides monthly rebates for Internet service and a one-time agreement to purchase a laptop, desktop or tablet computer.
The city turned to its citizens for help, asking voters to approve $22 million in bonds to install fiber optic cables for additional broadband services and other technologies to upgrade its water, sewage and traffic control systems. But the ballot failed last December, dealing a blow to Hanson’s plans.
Over to the blockchain
The city’s IT department decided to explore building a public WiFi network with existing resources and infrastructure. That decision ultimately led to a conversation between Hanson and Winston Lazar, founder and CEO of Spread Networks, a company that helps local governments, utilities and other organizations use open standards-based technologies for their digital infrastructure.
Lazar basically recommended that the city build a public WiFi network using Helium, a decentralized wireless IoT network which allows people to earn a cryptocurrency called HNT if they install specialized WiFi hotspots in their homes and businesses. However, Lazar and Hanson soon realized that a similar service, Pollen Mobilewould allow local governments to blast WiFi service across the city more efficiently using directional antennas.
If Shreveport hadn’t switched to Pollen Mobile for WiFi, “some of our best tower and rooftop locations would have put half of the radio’s power into the lake instead of into a home,” Hanson said.
Earlier this year, Shreveport set up a system with Pollen Mobile, which uses the Citizens Broadband Radio Service — a band of the radio frequency spectrum — to create a private 5G network for public WiFi. The city also uses Helium’s low-power wide-area network for smart city applications that require long-distance communications. Implementation was quick, Hanson said, because the city built its network using open standards — a feat that would not have been possible with a traditional provider using proprietary technology, he added.
The public library enters
The Shreveport IT department and Spread Networks still needed a broadband connection, places to install equipment and a way to alert the public that WiFi service was available. That led to a partnership with Shreveport’s public library system, which already had high-speed Internet service, filters to protect the public from unwanted content, physical locations in underserved communities and strong community relationships, Hanson said.
John Tuggle, executive director of the Shreve Memorial Library in Shreveport, said libraries have been trying to address the digital divide since the 1990s, but when Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins asked about providing Internet access to children outside the libraries, he had little to say. offer.
“As a profession, librarians have had a hard time imagining getting outside of our buildings to provide Internet access,” Tuggle said.
Tuggle said he was excited when Hanson and Lazar talked to him about using the library to build a public WiFi network. It was an opportunity for him and his colleagues to help their communities develop the digital skills they need to thrive, he said.
“Our economy has changed tremendously in the last 25 years,” Tuggle said. “It’s really to the point where internet access … is necessary just to survive.”
Out of Shreveport’s IT department, Spread Networks installed the equipment needed to power the WiFi network at libraries in five communities, with each installation reaching up to 1,000 homes. Residents with library cards living in the coverage area can access the network by obtaining and installing a hot spot kit from their local library.
Promising results
While the program only recently went into effect, the early returns seem promising, Tuggle said, noting that “it’s amazing” to see so many residents excited about having greater Internet access.
The approach was far less expensive than Shreveport’s other options, Hanson said, and the city spent about $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds on its public WiFi network. If it had partnered with a traditional Internet provider, Shreveport would have spent at least $5 million to reach the same number of homes, he said.
In addition to the cost savings, using an open standard like blockchain allowed Shreveport to build a custom solution without the need for a “master plan” because it’s interoperable, Spread Networks’ Lazar said, meaning it can work with an infinite number of custom or easily accessible products and services. Also, because Shreveport owns all the infrastructure, the city can use, modify and expand the network without asking vendors for permission or paying additional fees.
In addition to not having to deal with a dizzying array of proprietary and often incompatible technologies, using open technologies and platforms gives public officials far more control over their digital infrastructure, Hanson said, by giving them “the ultimate choice.”
“There is no artificial locking anymore,” he said.
Spread Networks, which operates the network for Shreveport, holds all of the cryptocurrency the network creates to mitigate any crypto-related legal or financial risks the city may face, Hanson said.
“Nobody had an appetite for it,” he said.
The goal was to build a network that the city could use for public WiFi and smart city projects like a video camera system aimed at deterring crime, Hanson said — cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are just part of making it work. The crypto tokens also provide an additional financial incentive for Spread Networks and similar providers to succeed, he said.
“It’s not just a service contract anymore,” Hanson said.
At the end of the day, improving internet access is the most important aspect of the project, he said.
“It doesn’t matter what technology you use,” Hanson said. “Lower the barrier and make it as easy as possible [using] a library card to adopt it.”
