LA Mayor James Hahn (with former Soviet President Gorbachev)-------- Tropos 5110 Outdoor Wi-Fi Cell

Doane Liu is Deputy Mayor for Operations of the City of Los Angeles and the lead administrator in the office of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn regarding his recently-appointed Broadband Executive Panel (BEP), a group charged with helping the Mayor develop a forward-looking policy for the possible universal and ubiquitous deployment of wireless broadband access for every resident and business in the U.S.'s second-largest city.

Mr. Liu spoke today with Unwired LA about the role of the City in developing and implementing a metro-level wireless broadband policy for itself and its resident people and businesses.

According to Mr. Liu, the two major purposes for unwiring Los Angeles are to enhance the infrastructure for business development within the city and to make wireless broadband access available to all city residents, thereby diminishing or eliminating the so-called "digital divide."

Asked about the issue of participation on the BEP by incumbent cable and telephone companies whose current dominant positions in providing video and voice services might be undermined by the mass availability of competitive video-on-demand and VoIP services delivered (possibly at lower price points) through a metro-level universal ubiquitous broadband wireless and/or broadband over power line Internet cloud deployed throughout Los Angeles, Deputy Mayor Liu said that the cable and telephone industries would be represented on the BEP and would participate in the group's discussions and deliberations but would not have a "veto" over the recommendations to the Mayor that will be submitted to him by this group by April, 2005.

The city official also commented on the benefits of having a wireless broadband cloud over Los Angeles for the delivery of police and other public safety services, telecommuting, e-government and better communication between neighborhoods (through the City's Neighborhood Council program) and City Hall.

You can hear this interview with Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Doane Liu in its entirety by clicking here.