Hybrid Monster Lampposts Appear On Roosevelt Island Says Resident, Abomination On Main Street Says Another - They're Wireless Cell Antennas To Increase Roosevelt Island Verizon & T Mobile Wi-fi Connectivity

Some sort of hybrid monster lamppost has appeared on the #RooseveltIsland promenade😳 (@ Roosevelt Island Promenade in New York, NY) https://t.co/ry2savi5Fz pic.twitter.com/8UYGoHUqXo

— NamelyNorm (@NamelyNorm) December 19, 2018

Well, it's not really a hybrid monster lamppost but rather one of 22 wireless cell antennas placed upon Roosevelt Island lampposts to provide increased Roosevelt Island Wi-fi connectivity by Crown Castle International.

As reported last October 30:

... WIRELESS SMALL CELL ANTENNAS

Wireless device connectivity on Roosevelt Island is about to be vastly improved, and less congested, during the next few weeks.

Crown Castle International Corp., the nation’s largest provider of shared communications infrastructure, will be installing 22 unique small cell locations on the Island covering from north to south. The antennas and fiber-optic cable-based networking will provide coverage and capacity for up to four data/phone service carriers including Verizon

Small cells are important wireless infrastructure that increase capacity and connectivity for mobile devices. They are small, low-powered antennas that can be installed on light and utility poles, street signs, and even on rooftops. Crown Castle, under a 10-year licensing agreement, will be building and maintaining this fiber ring around Roosevelt Island to supply various locations with better connectivity.

As the Roosevelt Island community continues to grow, more residents, businesses, students and visitors are relying on wireless devices to connect to the Internet and communicate (more than 50 percent of all U.S. households rely only on wireless phones; and some 80 percent of all 911 calls are made from wireless devices). When too many people try to use their mobile devices, the network can become overloaded: calls drop or don’t connect.

Small cells, like the ones being installed around the Island, can and will relieve this wireless congestion....

Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) President Judy Berdy spotted this "hybrid monster lamppost" yesterday at Good Shepherd Plaza and does not like it.

The abomination on Main Street.

Today, this object appeared at the Chapel Plaza.

This is another example of RIOC's disregard for the cityscape, appearance, and necessity of an obtrusive object. Along with the "RI" letters at the Tram Plaza we now have the WI-FI tower smack dab in front of the Chapel Plaza. The Chapel is a landmark structure, but unfortunately the Plaza is not, which means inappropriate objects can be placed there.

I attended RIOC meetings where the installation was discussed and never saw a rendering by Crown Castle the contractor that was anywhere as obtrusive as this wifi tower

The RIOC staff hides the truth from the community and insults our cityscape with obtrusive installations.

The RIOC Grinch has stolen our Chapel Plaza from us, again.

According to this excerpt from Castle Crown's November 2017 presentation to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors:

Pole attachments in the public right of way proposed in 23 unique locations (some of the pole attachments will be colocations):
     • 22 for T-Mobile
     • 21 for Verizon
     • 20 attachments are colocations with both Verizon and T-Mobile

All locations will feed back to a Hub location via fiber optic cable which will be located off of the Island for both Verizon and T-Mobile

1. License will enable Crown Castle to access the public right of way poles on Roosevelt Island
2. License is for a 10-year term with 3 – successive terms of 5-years.
3. Compensation for use of the poles to RIOC from Crown is $3,390.48 per location with an annual CPI adjustment.
4. Crown Castle is responsible for its own electrical utility charges.
5. Crown Castle will be building and maintaining a fiber ring around Roosevelt Island to supply the locations with connectivity.

Crown Castle will provide RIOC 4 strands of Dark Fiber along planned deployment route....

I asked RIOC today:

Are the new lampposts with WiFi connections the same design as renderings approved by RIOC?...

RIOC Public Information Officer Alonza Robertson replied:

Crown had worked with the Real Estate Committee prior to bringing the presentation to the full board at the December 2017 meeting.

The actual lampposts’ height and light fixtures’ height were adjusted at the behest of members of the committee; from 25 feet to 22 feet; and from 20 feet to 14.

The small boxes attached to the light poles, and the cell tower that encompass the light fixtures are the same.

The equipment attached to the wood telephone poles is larger than the renderings that were presented in November.

We have scheduled a meeting tomorrow with the company to discuss that.

Below is the presentation made by Crown Castle to the RIOC Board.

Crown Castle Roosevelt Island

Some Roosevelt Island Residents And Businesses As Well As Public Safety Department And RIOC Without Verizon Phone Service Since Last Week Due To Cornell Tech Campus Construction Phone Cable Cut

Some Roosevelt Island residents, businesses as well as the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) have been without Verizon phone service since last July 8 due to cable being accidentally cut at the Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island campus construction site.

According to this July 8 RIOC Advisory:

Please be advised that the Public Safety Department (550 Main Street) and the RIOC Offices (591 Main Street) are currently experiencing a telephone outage. To contact Public Safety during this outage, please call 212-832-4547 or 212-832-4548.

An advisory will be issued once service is restored. We appreciate your patience while we resolve this issue.

Roosevelt Island's Island House Management sent this July 9 memo to residents reporting:

...Verizon has confirmed there is a main phone cable failure in the area which has caused widespreaad outage throughout the Roosevelt Island area. Currently, all of our building phone lines are down...

... Verizon indicates the repair date could be as late as 7/21/15 and even that is not guaranteed...

The Twitterverse asked:

Anyone else on Roosevelt Island experiencing an outage in their Verizon landline service? (Island House, specifically?) @Rooseveltisland

— Tavie rhymes w/gravy (@TheRealTavie) July 9, 2015

Amalgamated Bank was closed last week due to the Verizon phone cable cut

but according to its web site today:

Please be advised that phone service to our Roosevelt Island branch is temporarily suspended due to a cable service outage on the island. The branch is open for business; however, customers attempting to reach the branch by phone should instead contact our Customer Service Call Center at (800) 662-0860.

The Island Wine & Spirits Store is not able to accept credit card transactions but only cash due to the Verizon phone cable cut.

The Verizon phone service disruption is not affecting all of Roosevelt Island.

A Cornell Tech spokesperson said today:

One of the subcontractors working for Cornell Tech accidentally cut a cable which has affected Verizon service on Roosevelt Island. We have been in contact with Verizon who is working to restore service. We apologize and are doing everything we can to get Verizon to restore service as soon as possible.‎

In January 2014, Cornell Tech contractors cut an undocumented water main pipe during demolition of Goldwater Hospital. During January 29, 2014 meeting of the Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island Construction and Community Task Force:

... I asked Cornell NYC Tech Director of Capital Planning Andrew Winters and his contractors what is being done to insure similar occurrences do not happen again.

Mr. Winters asked Ted Musho, Vice President of Tishman Construction, who is overseeing the site work to explain what happened and measures being taken to prevent it from occurring again. According to Mr. Musho:

... metal detectors and ground penetrating radar...

will be used to prevent future similar occurrences but:

...the reality of it is that you got 70 years worth of utility work that is laid on top of the site that is not well documented. Its going to take alot of effort on our part when we go through there to do this...

Mr. Winters added:

... we've done about 12 or so borings around the site without incident ...    its an unfortunate occurrence. We're going to try and avoid it and do whatever we can in the future by being more aggressive...

Mr. Winters also explained that part of the construction project is to:

...upgrade every utility that's down there. Electric, water, sewer, storm, everything. Part of the upgrading is moving it into the right of way so that it is fully mapped and full accessible for the future.

Here's video of the full discussion,

the latest Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island Campus Project Update:

July 10 - July 24 Look Ahead

Roadwork and Central Utility Plant - Roadway work is occurring along the north transverse road with water line, sewer pipe and manhole installation taking place. Also at the north transverse road, Boiler-matic work will be occurring in preparation for the turnover on Saturday, 25 July. Work is also taking place on the east road with sewer, storm, and electrical utilities installation ongoing.

Co-Location Building – Excavation and foundation work is ongoing. This includes drilling rock anchors.

Residential Building – Site Preparation is still ongoing in the form of surveying and perimeter erosion control. Excavation for foundations is underway. Slabs and interior footings are also occurring.

Bloomberg Center – Basement Slab forming is ongoing with installation of utility chases and utilities happening concurrently. Basement foundation walls in the south section of the building is ongoing.

and scenes from June campus groundbreaking ceremony.

Verizon Wireless On Wheels Available At Good Shepherd Plaza For Those Without Phone Service - 6 Days Since Roosevelt Island Phone Outage Caused By Cables Cut During Riverwalk Building 7 Construction

Image Of Verizon Wireless On Wheels at Roosevelt Island Good Shepherd Plaza

As reported November 9:

... a cable mistakenly cut last Thursday during the construction of Southtown Riverwalk building 7 caused the loss of Verizon land line phone service and Time Warner cable service to large portions of Roosevelt Island. Time Warner Cable service was restored later that evening but Verizon land line phone service is still out of service and it is not known yet when service will be restored....

Image Of Southtown Riverwalk Building 7 Construction Site

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) just sent out the following update:

Verizon has installed a "Wireless on Wheels" trailer on Good Shepherd Plaza on the south side of the Good Shepherd Community Center. This trailer, which is available free of charge, is equipped with fifteen cell phones, I- Pads for checking e-mails, and Wi-Fi service. The trailer will available until service is fully restored. Please feel free to avail yourself of these services.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

A Verizon Spokesperson added this afternoon:

Four of our cables were cut, two fiber and two copper. In round numbers, it was about 1,300 lines. The fiber cables were restored over the weekend, and that was about 400 lines/customers. The copper cables are much more difficult to restore, they require much more splicing. We have restored about another 400 lines thus far on one of the copper lines. As we continue to splice “pairs” within the cables, customers will be restored over the next couple of days. In addition, we have given some voice phones and Jetpacks (for data) deployed yesterday to Public Safety group on RI for distribution to residents who have urgent need. We are also setting up a mobile trailer that contains phones for residents’ use.

UPDATE 4:15 PM - From RIOC

Please be advised that the Verizon trailer service will be available from 9 A.M. until 5 P.M. daily.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

After 3 Days Verizon Land Line Phone Service Still Out For Many On Roosevelt Island, Not Known When Service Will Be Restored - In Emergency Use Yellow Call Boxes Located On Island Says RIOC

Image Of Verizon Repair Truck On Main Street

As previously reported, a cable mistakenly cut last Thursday during the construction of Southtown Riverwalk building 7

Image Of Southtown Riverwalk Building 7 Construction Site

caused the loss of Verizon land line phone service and Time Warner cable service to large portions of Roosevelt Island. Time Warner Cable service

Image Of Time Warner Cable Repair Truck

was restored later that evening but Verizon land line phone service is still out of service and it is not known yet when service will be restored.

If you do not have phone service, in the event of an emergency the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) advises

Please be advised, as an alternative means of accessing a 911 operator during the phone outage is by utilizing one of the Yellow emergency call boxes that are situated throughout the island. Please follow the instructions located inside of the box. It should be noted, however that the Silver emergency call boxes have been compromised by the outage and are not operational.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

There are many senior citizens and others on Roosevelt Island who do not have cell phone service. Losing their land phone line is a great burden to them so I hope Verizon gets land line phone service repaired and running very soon.

UPDATE 8:30 PM - RIOC Public Safety Department adds:

Yellow Emergency Call Boxes can be found at following locations-
1) South of 1 Main St(Goldwater Hospital) Call Box#7804
2) West Drive(Opposite 455 Main St- Starbucks) Call Box#7805
3) West Seawall (Rear of 8 River Rd) Call Box#7802
4) East Roadway (Front of Octagon Tennis Courts) Call Box#7801
5) East Seawall (Rear of 540-560 Main St) Call Box#7807

Verizon Phone Service Outage On Most Of Roosevelt Island Right Now, RIOC Advises To Call 911 or Flag Down Public Safety Vehicle To Report An Emergency

There is currently a disruption in Verizon land line phone service for many areas of Roosevelt Island. According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):

Please be aware that due to technical difficulties with Verizon, phone lines are temporarily out of service.  In the event of an emergency, please report to the Public Safety Office.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

RIOC Public Safety Department Director Jack McManus asks that if you have a problem to flag down a PSD vehicle patrolling the street or to call 911.

UPDATE 2:35 PM - According to Rivercross building management notice to residents:

Verizon has confirmed to us that cables were cut during construction of Southtown building number 7 today. This has resulted in an Island-wide outage of the following:

VERIZON copper landline telphone service (not FIOS)
ALL TIME WARNER CABLE services, including telephone, internet and television

We have no estimate of when service might be restored....

UPDATE 4:30 PM - According to a spokesperson for Southtown Riverwalk building 7 developer Hudson Related:

Unfortunately unmarked Verizon and Time Warner cables were in the path of excavation for the new DEP force main (sewer) at Riverwalk. The old lines were marked “dead” on all as-built infrastructure drawings and Verizon and Time Warner did not ID/mark them out when they did their utility scan of the site and sidewalk prior to excavation.

Currently Verizon and Time Warner are on site. Time Warner will start repairs after 5:30 pm. It is not known when Verizon will commence or complete their repairs. When we know more from their teams, I will alert you.

and a Verizon spokesperson adds:

Up to three of our cables were cut earlier today. We believe by a contractor doing construction. We will determine who/which at a later point. Right now we have crews onsite and will need to dig to expose the full length of the cables, so they can be properly spliced to repair or replace completely.

The addresses I have as being affected are 455, 465 and 475 Main and 687 Main. May be others. To the best of our knowledge this occurred around Noon. At this point I do not have a time of restoration. But we are on it.

UPDATE 11 PM - Received this statement from Hudson Related at 5:17 PM:

This just came from our team on the ground:

Verizon and Time Warner both on site relocating their lines through the new conduits installed during phase1. They will continue work 24 hours till system is operational.

Rivercross resident reports having Time Warner TV back but not Verizon phone service at 10:30 PM.

UPDATE 9/8 10:40 AM - Hudson Related Spokesperson reports:

As of this morning:

Verizon completed the fiber bypass and fiber service is back on line. The new copper line bypass is installed but not spliced. Splicing crew will start this afternoon or this evening and work until completion.

Time Warner is not onsite this morning which likely means they completed their bypass work.

Hopefully people are starting get back online.

Problems With Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department Verizon PhoneLines Today - Here's An Alternate Phone Number

Received the following advisory this afternoon from the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):

PSD Telephone Line

Due to technical difficulty beyond our control. Verizon is presently experiencing problems with there phone lines.

When calling Public Safety please use the following number.212-832-4546 thank you.

UPDATE 6 PM - RIOC PSD Director McManus reports that the PSD phones are now back in service.

Some Roosevelt Island Verizon Phone Outages After Hurricane Irene - RIOC Public Safety Office Phone Not In Service, Administrative Office Has Limited Service, How's Your Phone Service?

Image of East River Flooding On Roosevelt Island From W Cruz

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) is reporting problems with Roosevelt Island Verizon Phone service after the departure of Hurricane Irene.

Please be advised that due to the storm, the RI Public Safety Phone Number is not in service. All emergency calls for service must be made to 9-1-1.

The Administrative Offices for RIOC have extremely limited phone service at this time. All non-emergency calls should be made to 3-1-1.

However, our information hotline is still in operation at 212-308-6608

Repair technicians from Verizon have been notified. We are awaiting dispatch crews for repair.

In addition, we have received numerous notifications by residents that their Verizon phones are not working in their apartments. Verizon advises that customers call for service using a cell phone or a neighbor's phone.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

Although you might not know it now, there was East River flooding from Hurricane Irene on Roosevelt Island this morning.

Images of East River Flooding On Roosevelt Island From W Cruz

UPDATE 8/29 - Received this phone service advisory from RIOC at 5:29 PM today:

Please be advised that due to the Verizon telephone outage, we are providing the Public Safety Department with temporary phone numbers.

Primary Number: 347-291-2424
Alternate Number: 347-291-2427

If the Primary Number is busy, please hang up and dial the Alternate Number.

When full service is restored, an additional advisory will be sent.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

There was a Verizon Truck repairing cables in Southtown this afternoon.

UPDATE 8/30: RIOC reports:

Please be advised that the Public Safety Department phone line, 212-832-4545, is back in operation.

In case you experience a problem getting through, please call the temporary phone numbers:

Primary Number: 347-291-2424
Alternate Number: 347-291-2427

The temporary phone numbers will be operational until the end of the week, Friday, September 2nd.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

Could Roosevelt Island Be A Site For Google's New Ultra High Speed Internet Broadband Network - Hey Google, Give Us A Try

You Tube Video of Google's Experimental Fiber Network

Since Google decided not to send it's Street View Trike to Roosevelt Island last year, here's a second chance for Google to use Roosevelt Island as a site for one of it's new products. A tech savvy reader sends in this message:

First, the link: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi

Looks like Google is planning to become a Internet Service Provider. At current, they are going to test out their fiber service in small communities and I think our "microcosmic Manhattan" could be a great candidate for this project. Since Google is planning service up to 1 gb/s (roughly 100x what most Americans experience currently) at a "competitive price", this could be just the right kind of competition to push all other service providers out of their stagnant pricing and bandwidth caps.

Because I don't have enough information on the status of broadband connectivity on the island, I am reluctant to fill out the info form on the website. I am also unsure about the willingness of our community to get more connected. Also, I'm not sure what the availability of fiber optic connection is for the buildings on the island. I believe the Octagon is fiber-ready and that's already a ~500 resident market.

I hope that by posting this on the blog we can get the word out to the residents. Not to forget the community leaders who may have a bit more knowledge and influence to bring such a revolutionary project to our little island. It seems like Roosevelt Island has been welcoming these kinds of projects lately (namely, the electric water turbine project from Verdant Power) and we could add to our image of a progressive and positive leader in these eco/techno-logical times.

While RI is technically part of Manhattan and NYC, I think that we may have a better chance of obtaining a top spot in this experiment because of our "small community in a big city" nature. It would be more difficult to implement a project like this in any other borough since they are so dense.

Of course this is not a totally altruistic cause, I know that I and many other people would love a higher bandwidth at lower prices; what with all the internet TV and gaming and media-heavy applications now in use.

Thanks for reading my long email. I just saw this on a blog today and thought this would be a great opportunity for our community.

I asked RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin what he thought of the idea for Roosevelt Island. Mr. Kalkin likes the idea and replied:

Yes. I saw this the other day on gizmodo and was going to address it at the operations meeting. It looks interesting. From their page it states that anyone can file and government cooperation would be helpful.

I also like some of the initiatives that Google has incorporated on their campus like solar powered parking areas and options for plug-in electric cars. Perhaps this could be a relationship that would branch into other opportunities.

The response deadline is March 26. Governments and communities can respond to Google's Fiber service here.

More on Google's experimental fiber network plan from the NY Times:

Google said Wednesday that it would offer ultrahigh-speed Internet access in some communities in a test that could showcase the kinds of things that would be possible if the United States had faster broadband networks...

The Washington Post adds:

... In experimenting with broadband access, the company said, Google would create networks in a select number of communities across the country to deliver Internet service directly to homes at 1 gigabit per second. Google plans to request proposals from municipalities to determine what areas would be part of the experiment. It said it would pay for the construction and operation of the networks and charge consumers rates that would be competitive with other service providers.

The trials would involve relatively compact areas, the company said, with the networks reaching at least 50,000 and up to 500,000 people. The District has a population of about 591,000...

UPDATE 2/19 - Good News. RIOC and RIRA both agreed to provide information and apply to be a test community for Google's new high speed broadband ISP service. RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin and RIRA President Frank Farance are both highly interested in this service and will take lead in effort.

Roosevelt Island Cable and Internet Inquiry

A reader who will be moving to Roosevelt Island soon asks for recommendations on Cable and Internet packages.

Many thanks for your lovely blog on Roosevelt Island. It is really great to read about the place before actually moving there. I will be moving into Southtown and would appreciate if you have any recommendations on Cable and Internet packages and providers for Southtown.

Time Warner Cable and Verizon are the only two companies as of now that provide such service. TW is promoting a Triple Play 50% off of the first two months service for cable tv, high speed online and digital phone. I subscribe to their cable and broadband service but am very leery of digital phone. If the cable service goes out phone service is lost as well so I use Verizon land line phone service although I am seriously considering dropping land line and just going wireless. I am satisfied with the TW cable and Roadrunner broadband service but they can always do better and if a faster system comes along I would give it a shot. I do not know anything about the quality of Verizon's DSL service to Roosevelt Island but understand that their high speed FIOS service may be available here soon. The Octagon building has some additional options though I am not aware of the details.
Hope that helps.