Minneapolis finally launches test networks: The finalists were announced last fall for building a Minneapolis network with fiber and Wi-Fi components, and US Internet and EarthLink will launch test wireless networks this Saturday. The city expects to announce a winning bidder Aug. 14, with a contract to be voted on Aug. 18 by the city council. That seems rather remarkable unless the contracts are already fully negotiated and ready to go on award of the bid. The city's deputy CIO says EarthLink discovered they needed 30 percent more Wi-Fi nodes than initially planned for the their one-square-mile test network.
New York starts to plan for a plan: On July 21, the city should receive proposals for conducting a broadband feasibility study, which would assess the city's existing facilities and whether a citywide network would be needed. Wired or wireless isn't clearly specified in this article.