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November 9, 2006

St. Louis Park Moves Ahead on Wi-Fi Network

The municipally owned network will cost $3.3m in St. Louis Park, Minn.: The heavily canopied Minneapolis suburb won't pursue private/public efforts, but will finance its own for-fee network. The service will run from $15 to $30 per month, with rates starting at 128 Kbps to 1 Mbps for that range. ARINC and Unplugged Cities (a local firm) will build the network under contract. They city needs 32 percent of consumers and 15 percent of small businesses to subscribe to recoup costs. The city has 45,000 people in 20,000 households, so the numbers a little confusing--does one subscriber in a household that's sharing the service count as one "consumer"? I would guess they're looking at 6,000+ subscribers. The city has relatively little wireline broadband available from incumbents, according to this article.

Update: See local localist Becca Vargo Daggett's comments below that clarify all points; Daggett is with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

1 Comment

Not as confusing as the Strib reporter makes it seem. The City's report is clear that they are shooting for 32% of households (6100) and 15% of businesses (300) within the first 12 months. It is correct that they're underserved by Qwest DSL, so while that seems high for a first tier suburb, it's quite doable.

It's worth noting that the $3.3 million includes about $500,000 in additional fiber, as well as core network and pilot costs.

And the rates are actually $14.99 for 128 k (targeted at senior citizens who just want to get away from dial-up - Unplugged Cities is paying the City $14 per sub, per month, so they're essentially offering this at cost), $19.99 for 1 M, and $29.99 for 2.5-3 M. All speeds are symmetrical, which the Strib reportedly has an editorial policy against including in stories on the bizarre rationale that if the incumbents don't offer it, it must not be possible.

ARINC won the bid to build the contract with Proxim gear after a vendor using Tropos gear didn't perform to expectations in the pilot. They're using solar power on the nodes, so it will be the first citywide solar project (Boulder has solar, but it's just on the Mall).

Unplugged Cities (a local company! and nice guys, too) won the RFP for a management partner and has been working with the City through the pilot and the second RFB.

But no one need rely on the Strib's lousy reporting or even my translation. The full report is publicly available on the City's web site (other cities should learn from this)
http://www.stlouispark.org/pdf/110606_8d_Citywide_Wireless_Project.pdf