Wireless Oakland (FAQ and Maps), a project to blanket all 910 square miles of Oakland County Michigan with WiFi, is months behind schedule nearly a year and half after the project was announced, reports The Detroit News.
Representatives of MichTel Communications, the company chosen by Oakland County to own, operate and maintain the network, said they have encountered numerous problems placing equipment on thousands of utility poles.
Tony Yangouyian, MichTel’s general manager, said the free wireless service at 128 kilobytes per second is still on schedule for the end of 2007. The network is expected to cost $100 million to build and $1 million a month to operate.
MichTel plans to make money on their fee-based tiers — 512 kbps costs $20 a month — and by selling extensive advertising and issuing naming rights to its site. No taxpayer dollars are being used.
In its first full year of operation, Oakland Wireless is projected to make $53 million if it captures 10 percent of the county’s 1.2 million households and 40,000 businesses, Yangouyian said.
Azulstar, based in Grand Haven, Mich., was formed to enable the rapid rollout of mobile Wi-Fi/WiMAX networks and will provide the gear. Cisco, RF Connect, Dykema, UHY Advisors, Johnson & Anderson, and other professional service firms and private investors have joined the Wireless Oakland initiative.
Muni Wireless says Oakland County issued a bid last year and chose MichTel Communications from Pontiac to own, operate and maintain the network. MichTel is bearing all the costs. Ultimately, the county envisions a 910-square-mile area where anyone can connect wirelessly to the Internet at high speeds – with the lowest level of access free. The network is expected to generate $456.6 million in revenue for MichTel Communications between 2005 and 2010.
In other news, Muni Wireless reports ten Colorado cities plan to issue an RFP by November 2006. The so-called Colorado Wireless Communities network (PDF Report) would be privately funded and operated and would blanket each of the 10 cities, an area that covers about 220 square miles and more than 600,000 people.
