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October 16, 2006

Muni Roundup: Boston (Mass.), Oakland County (Mich.)

By Glenn Fleishman

Boston lights up downtown: Galaxy Internet turns on SkyPilot equipment to run the Boston Wi-Fi HotZone. Quincy Market, City Hall Plaza, and Faneuil Hall. Equipment was donated by those two firms; labor by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Works (Local 103) for installing the radios. This is a pilot program related to the city-wide network that a task force recommended recently.

Oakland County, Michigan’s network delays further explained: It’s still all about the poles. The utility, DTE Energy, the electrical utility in the 910-square-mile county, wants to inspect every pole before allowing access. The utility explains that poles can have “different voltages, transformers, and physical characteristics.” This is not unreasonable, of course, but in other locales, the utilities are working much more closely with firms and municipalities installing Wi-Fi service in a simultaneous and cooperative fashion to deploy radios in places where that works now—rather than surveying 20,000 poles first. The utility also says it’s awaiting permitting requests from MichTel, the firm unwiring the county.

Posted by Glennf at October 16, 2006 10:36 AM

Categories: Municipal

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