Miami-Dade County is considering a 2,000 square miles broadband wireless network costing more than $75 million, reports the Miami Herald. The Miami-Dade County Wireless initiative will be built around Wi-Fi or WiMax standards.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez says Wireless Miami-Dade could save the County an estimated $25 million over five years, alone and make Miami-Dade County a better place for generations. He wants to introduce wireless pilot programs in three neighborhoods this summer, with price breaks for low-income families, but his administration has yet to write a formal business plan or conduct specific market research.
Broadband Reports notes the plan is vague, leaving room for input from stakeholders and negotiations with private vendors who would bid to run the system. But Alvarez has laid out an aggressive timeline: lighting up the entire county by 2009. According to the Miami Herald:
Under state law, county government cannot own the network unless it gives away the service free. Miami Beach is launching just such a system, but Miami-Dade budget analysts said it was impossible countywide because the area is so vast.
Instead, Alvarez will likely create a nonprofit corporation to manage the project. He has sworn not to use tax dollars, leaving the nonprofit to raise the capital, purchase the equipment and hire a company to operate the system.
Ira Feuer, the mayor’s top technology advisor, who is steering the project, wants to use a frequency that is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and therefore more reliable. That frequency, however, is owned by the Miami-Dade School Board, which might bypass Alvarez’s nonprofit and lease it to a private company for up to $80 million over 10 to 30 years.
”It’s a huge fight,” said School Board member Ana Rivas Logan, one of 24 members of a Wireless Steering Committee Alvarez formed.
The wireless system would work on free, unlicensed frequencies, Feuer said, but not as efficiently.
One of the project’s top priorities is to get more low-income residents online. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Nielsen’s NetRatings marketing firm, Feuer estimates that about 38 percent of Miami-Dade households have high-speed Internet, 38 percent use outdated dial-up service and the rest are not online at all.
Members of the last group face competitive disadvantages in many areas — job searches, education programs and other resources are increasingly easier and cheaper online.
”The primary goal is to erase the digital divide,” Alvarez said last month during his State of the County speech.
Families below a yet-to-be-set income level would get access for about $10 a month — others will likely pay about $25 — as well as computer training. Feuer said he has spoken to computer manufacturers about selling those families Internet-ready systems for as little as $100.
”This will be a huge project, so you know the [competitors] will be looking at it,” said Diane Neff, now a consultant to municipal wireless networks.
She also questioned Alvarez’s 2009 timeline, estimating the nonprofit would need 18 months before it could sign a vendor, then at least as much time to install equipment.
Politics could interfere, as well. Alvarez has a touchy relationship with the County Commission, which would need to sign off on any use of county funds.
”There’s plenty of people who think we’re in way over our head,” Logan said. “People once said we couldn’t put a man on the moon.”
In Houston, EarthLink was approved to build a WiFi network covering more than 600 square miles. Houston Mayor Bill White predicts the technology will “bridge the digital divide” and “lift people up educationally.”
Los Angeles and Most of California seem to be planning municipal networks. The 498 square mile Los Angeles network, unveiled last month, plans wireless Internet access by 2009.
