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We’re long past the beginning of the end, and we’re nearing the end of the end for the built-it-first, figure-revenue-later model of municipal Wi-Fi: For two years, MetroFi has had the contract for Aurora, Ill., among the first cities to electrify its streetlights (1881). Delays due to utility poles have kept the network from growing fast for some time. Now, according to local papers, MetroFi is requiring a $3.5m contract over five years to cover public safety wireless costs or it won’t complete the ad-supported, free public access network. Only 20 percent of the network has been built, and no work has been done since June.
MetroFi confirmed via email that the company won’t build the networks out further, noting through a spokesperson, “Everyone involved has been aware of the change in the industry model for quite a while.”
MetroFi has lost a number of contracts over the last year as it shifted its model—a process they say began in late 2006—from public access funded through advertising to public access/public safety, with anchor tenancy required by a city. In some cases, cities claimed that MetroFi brought up the requirement after contracts were signed; in others, municipalities said that the discussion started during negotiations.
In Portland, Ore., MetroFi apparently told the city in October that the company either needed a city commitment or additional capital to continue building the network. Nothing’s been said since, and Portland pretty vehemently said that they wouldn’t commit to any anchor tenant requirements.
While the city had originally budgeted $5m for a Wi-Fi network and “other technology upgrades,” the Beacon News reports, MetroFi came in with a no-cost proposal for the city. The newspaper says that the city will put out an RFI rather than sign a deal without bidding it out. Aurora and adjacent Naperville, which is in the same boat reports the Naperville Sun, will likely produce a joint proposal.
The Naperville Sun article has the interesting additional fact that MetroFi built pilot 4.9 GHz public safety networks for the two cities to examine, and after tests, “both cities chose not to purchase additional services.”
Related to this, perhaps, is that little word has come from MetroFi’s primary equipment supplier SkyPilot, since a report surfaced in Unstrung last summer of significant layoffs; the company didn’t confirm or deny those reports at the time or since. MetroFi is the only metro-scale Wi-Fi firm in the U.S. to use SkyPilot’s gear.
Posted by Glennf at January 22, 2008 7:32 AM
Categories: Financial, Metro-Scale Networks, Municipal
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