Dianah Neff, Philadelphia's Chief Information Officer

Dianah Neff is the Chief Information Officer of the City of Philadelphia, the fifth largest city by population (in 2003, about 1.5 million) in the U.S.

As part of her duties, she coordinates the activities of the Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee, established by Philadelphia Mayor John Street on August 25, 2004 to develop a proposal for unwiring the city.

Ms. Neff as appeared twice before on Broadband Wireless Access World, first on September 3, 2004, when she discussed the mission of the newly-announced Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee and for a second time on November 30, 2004, when she talked about negotiations between the City of Philadelphia and Verizon to "allow it to build a universal ubiquitous wireless broadband Internet access network within its boundaries." .

The Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee, under the leadership of Ms. Neff, has now completed its work and submitted its recommendations to Mayor Street, who will be considering them and, according to the CIO, making an announcement sometime in February about what the city's wireless plan will be.

CIO Neff spoke again today with Broadband Wireless Access World about the process through which the Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee conducted its work; the means by which a grassroots effort waged on Philadelphia's behalf was able to preserve the city's legal right to build a metro-level muni-broadband network for itself; the role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the federal government generally in promoting broadband wireless; the need for public-private partnerships to facilitate wider wireless broadband deployment; and the tentative timetable for an announcement from Mayor Street, the release of a Request for Proposals, and the start of the actual construction of unwired Philadelphia infrastructure while it's still possible to take advantage of good summer weather this year.

You can listen to the comments on these and related subjects by Dianah Neff, Philadelphia's CIO, by clicking here.

For an interesting op-ed commentary piece about the muni-broadband situation in Pennsylvania in general, Philadelphia in particular, and throughout the U.S. in a global context, see "Broadband boondoggle in the making," by Ron Sege, CEO, Tropos Networks, a leading manufacturer of Wi-Fi radios.