Tempe, Ariz., network offers poor indoor coverage: Also, Pope Catholic. The folks at MobilePro (now Kite Networks) have just 650 subscribers as of April, with no new numbers released, in a city of 160,000. I wrote about Tempe, Ariz., in my Economist article on municipal wireless about 15 months ago, noting that it should be an easy win with relative flatness and good expectations. The city appears happy with the mobile aspect, and Kite continues to add nodes. Kite will start selling a bridge in July that they believe will boost service indoors and improve subscriber numbers. (This article is from June 29; I can't believe I missed it!) Update: A reader pointed out this was June 29, 2006, not 2007. My mistake! I wondered why it seemed familiar. I blame RSS: the story popped up recent in a feed.

Brookline, Mass., launches citywide public safety and public broadband wireless network on July 18: The city and its partner Galaxy Internet Services--also involved in pilots in Boston--will use 2.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz, and is claiming a first: a Wi-Fi network which includes "the first implementation of newly licensed spectrum for public safety." Any takers want to dispute that? I know that 4.9 GHz is now widely used, but I believe Brookline is correct that there's no citywide network that has both public 2.4 GHz and public safety 4.9 GHz in place.

Harrisonburg terminates Wi-Fi agreement, starts work on next one: The city canceled the franchise to World AirWaves to build out an IPv6-capable wireless network. IPv6 is the next-generation Internet protocol that's been next-generation for approaching a decade. IPv6 offers a much larger address space (128 bits instead of 32 bits for the address), and much greater sophistication in handling and routing data efficiently. It can even support mobile IP addresses that roam with the device. IPv6 is apparently required for future federal government interties, something I was unaware of, and may affect hard-wired networks much more than wireless ones. World AirWaves was to bear the full cost of the network build out; the agreement was struck a year ago, and now must be rebid.

Holy Toledo: It just keeps going on. The fired city IS director tells the council that the proposed MetroFi $2.2m contract for services would pay for itself. Her former boss wouldn't respond to cost conservation being part of the way in which the network wouldn't involve much or any net increase in costs. One council member wants the process to be re-bid in any case, noting that a network that involved no cost to the city is quite different than a $2.2m contract. That sounds quite reasonable, even if you can zero it out at the end of the day.