Post in Minneapolis Wi-Fi: Time to Pull the Contract?

Mar 20 03:26 UTC

Historically, our city has entered into contracts to grant utilities
access to our streets and such in return for fees. These are very
lucrative franchises, and Exel Energy, Qwest, Reliant Energy, and a
few other franchisers happily pay those franchise fees to gain access
to our market. But when it came time to add a wireless internet
provider to our city's light poles, this history was forgotten and
our city was contractually bound to pay the provider, U.S. Internet,
a fee of $1,250,000 a year. Bad deal that it was, that contract
required that U.S. Internet provide service to at least 90% of the
city, with no mention of "Ruckus" amplifiers being needed. We were
also supposed to get free access to government websites and free
access for a substantial number of non profits.

	Up here in the hood, we're used to indifferent service from cherry
picking utilities. Qwest has trouble supporting a narrow band audio
stream with their DSL, the gas company checked my meter because they
couldn't believe the $40 monthly bill, and Exel seems to be relying
on our water system for one side of their circuit. So it was no
surprise when U.S. Internet took their sweet time getting nodes up
here and then took even more of their sweet time getting them turned
on. Who knows if they'll ever get them working... In testing, I have
gotten no connection with the nearest node about 100 meters away. I
can get a marginal connection with a node a bit over 150 meters away
only if I stand by a facing window to enable a line of sight signal
path. Searching for connections, I plopped the laptop on my dashboard
and did a bit of WARdriving. I found nodes that could barely produce
a measurable signal from 10 meters away, never mind communicate. I
found more dead spots than coverage. But I was able to connect from
Brookdale's parking lot, 400 meters from the city limits!

	Back to that contract... We are paying U.S. Internet $1,250,000 a
year, supposedly so our police, firefighters, and other city
employees can have internet access in at least 90% of the city. In
reality there are so many dead spots the service is useless- when
firefighters have run hoses to and from their pumper or set out the
outriggers on a ladder, you can't just drive down the street until
you can find a wireless connection. We are paying $1,250,000 for
wireless service that is useless but for all but a few glorified
webcams.

	We have given U.S. Internet more than enough time, and the service
is probably not going to improve. U.S. Internet is privately held,
and our city should have demanded access to their books before this
bad deal was ever done. Our city estimates that U.S. Internet needs
$3,000,000 a year just to cover debt service on the start up costs of
the system. In vague claims, they say they either have 8,000
subscribers... or is it 8,000 potential subscribers? At an average of
$25 a month, 8,000 subscribers leaves U.S. internet still $600,000 a
year short of servicing the system's debt, never mind maintainence
and upgrades. We are looking at a system that is not working
probably, and survives (for now) only through a subsidy of $1,250,000
of our taxpayer dollars each year. And it's not going to get any
better- WiFi operates in the microwave range where communication is
pretty near literally "line of sight". Spacing nodes 200 meters apart
doesn't cut it, and U.S. Internet will probably go under before they
add enough nodes to give the promised 90% coverage.

	It's time to pull the contract and start building a real 21st
century wireless communications system for Minneapolis.

	from the wireless dead zones of Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter