I wasn’t able to make the Common Council Committee meeting yesterday where this was discussed, but it looks like the deal between Milwaukee and Midwest Fiber Networks to provide with “free” wireless connectivity has been dealt a serious blow.

Two weeks after the company was contractually obligated to have the “test area” network up and running, and a week after I personally was unable to find a wireless signal on that “test area”, the company now seems to be laying the foundation for backing out as it admits it won’t be able to complete the entire network for two more years and it “may not be financially viable” anyways.

Those aren’t the kind of signals you like to hear if you’re in favor of the city-wide wireless initiative. The Common Council now faces a tough decision of whether to continue to follow Midwest Fiber Networks as they try to distance themselves from any sort of legal or moral responsibility, or to cut off a bad relationship now and move forward with this project the way it should have been done from day one.

Either way, it’s bad news for the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative and for residents like myself who were really looking forward to this project’s completion.

After learning that the “test area” of the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative project had been successfully implemented as of last Saturday, the 7th of July, I decided to see for myself this afternoon just how good the coverage in the area was.

As you may know, the “test area” of the project is basically a rectangle that is bound by I-43 on the East, highway 45 on the West, Vliet St on the North, and Wisconsin Ave. on the South. This area is to serve as a testing area to presumably work out the bugs in the system while the rest of the city is outfitted with the infrastructure that will enable true city-wide wireless Internet connectivity.

On today’s drive home from work (East side to West side of Milwaukee) I thought I’d see for myself how good the coverage of the test area was. I flipped open my MacBook Pro and took my normal route home on Highland Ave, which runs East to West and almost right down the middle of the “test area”, stopping in the middle of every block from I-43 (13th Street) to 40th Street. While unscientific in nature, at every stop I shut down the airport on my laptop, enabled it, and would wait at least 10 seconds for it to find a signal before moving on.

I’m sad and dismayed to report that only once along that route – the first stop on 13th and Highland – and among those 25+ stops was I able to even get a signal from the “Milwaukee Wi-Fi” wireless network. When I tried to connect to the network, I was presented with an error message that there was a problem in connecting to the network.

There were plenty of other wireless networks to join along Highland Ave., most of them baring the default names like “linksys” and “belkin”, but I couldn’t get another signal on my Macbook Pro for the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative test area, which the company charged with building out has claimed to be “complete”, anywhere on Highland Ave. from 14th Street to 40th – basically the middle of the test area.

My primary concern here is that Midwest Fiber Networks still hasn’t completed the build out of the test area for the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative which they were given an extension to complete by last Saturday, July 7th. If that were the case, and they were publicly stating they were in compliance with the terms of their contract when in fact they aren’t, that would be a very serious matter.

I’d love to be wrong. I’d love to find out that the “test area” network was in fact shut down for some reason today. I’d love to be told I’m mistaken and some technical glitch prevented my otherwise fully functional laptop from finding a network signal. I have to accept however, that nothing was wrong and the test area network either isn’t fully completed or isn’t fully functional. Either way, that’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed before this project is allowed to proceed.

I plan on doing a similar test tomorrow going towards downtown along Wisconsin Ave. to see if the problems I ran into were limited to Highland Ave or perhaps the time of day. But if someone with a top of the line laptop can’t get a signal from this network in the middle of each of 25+ blocks in the middle of the test area – where the signal should be strongest – then I don’t know how those citizens who don’t have top of the line equipment are supposed to access a resource that’s being built for their benefit.

I’ll have more tomorrow.

At yesterday’s Steering & Rules committee meeting, Milwaukee’s CIO informed us that the Milwaukee Wireless Initiative being implemented by Midwest Fiber Networks wouldn’t meet the goal of having the demonstration area (bounded by I43 [10th St.] on the east, US41 [47th St] on the west, Canal St. on the south and Vliet St. on the north) ready for testing by January as they had committed to in their contract. In fact, the demonstration area probably wouldn’t be completed until this July at the earliest.

This is the second time a deadline for completion of the demonstration area has been missed.

Watching the committee meeting yesterday, it was pretty clear that the city CIO was frustrated with the lack of progress, citing the delays on unexpected processes like zoning restrictions. Midwest Fiber Networks also claimed they’ve “found this project to be far more complex than anticipated” a claim which Alderman Bauman lashed out at. He made the (fair in my opinion) point that this entire project was backed by a task force that had all parties involved signing off to fast-track the project to avoid exactly the kinds of delays that MWFN is now claiming.

The long and short of it is that it doesn’t appear the demonstration area network will be up until July of this year at the earliest. When the contract for this project was signed, the entire city was supposed to have wi-fi access by the end of the 2007.

However, seeing how long it’s taking MWFN to get just the demo area up and running, others besides me are beginning to doubt just how capable this company is of completing the work for the entire city in the near future.

That’s not to say that a citywide wireless network for Milwaukee won’t happen. Far from it. The original benefits of this project to the citizens of Milwaukee remain as relevant and important as they were when this project was pitched nearly 18 months ago, and I personally look forward to helping the city reach those goals.

But as Ald. Murphy and Bauman pointed out yesterday, we may have to reevaluate our partnership with MWFN if they can’t complete the work in a timely fashion.

Work continues for the Milwaukee city-wide wireless network according to the latest “progress report” on the initiative from the City:

Work in the demonstration area (bounded by I43 [10th St.] on the east, US41 [47th St] on the west, Canal St. on the south and Vliet St. on the north) is proceeding. In the past several weeks a limited number of antennas have been placed on electric and street light poles, which will be part of the “mesh” network when they are “powered up” and start to operate. As the antenna “mesh” becomes denser, reception will improve, but may not be optimal at first, depending on where the user tries to connect to the system.

Hard to say what a “limited” number of antennas is, or how much progress is being made since the progress report is also very “limited” on specifics, but regardless the project is again behind schedule.

Work on the “demonstration area” was supposed to be completed by January 16th 2007, and that was even a delay from the original timeframe the demonstration was supposed to be completed within.

I’ve expressed my frustration before with the pace at which the work on this project has proceeded and these developments do nothing to give me hope that the project will be completed anywhere near schedule.

On the flip side of that, I’m one of the testers for another wireless project in the Milwaukee area being run by the Milwaukee Public School system. They’re using “Wi-MAX’ technology and already have a working system up and in place. The speed and connectivity so far has been great, and I will have more details on that in the near future.

Press releases from two seperate Milwaukee Alderman hit my Inbox late this afternoon regarding the Milwaukee Wi-Fi plan and specifically about Midwest Fiber Networks.

For the backstory, visit the archive of all posts on the Milwaukee Wi-Fi proposal.

The press releases were from Alderman Michael Murphy and Jim Bohl, both expressing frustration with the (lack of) speed at which the plan has progressed over the past 9 months. Ald. Murphy’s press release had this to say:

In June, Ald. Michael J. Murphy sponsored a resolution that was passed by the Common Council, inviting and authorizing other companies to negotiate a contract to provide Wi-Fi service. Today he announced that on Thursday (Sept. 7), the city removed the exclusivity language from the contract with Midwest Fiber, a contract that has still not been finalized. When the Common Council first approved the Midwest Fiber plan in January, officials thought the near west side would have service this summer with the rest of the city completed by mid 2007. “Despite the best efforts of city officials, the city has yet to finalize a contract to build the system,” said Ald. Murphy. “I greatly applaud this change in Midwest Fiber’s contract language, and believe that the City of Milwaukee will achieve the best possible result through open, non-preferential treatment of any and all interested companies.”

Ald. Bohl went a step further with the criticism:

“Granting this protectionist provision to MFN was a big mistake and has only served to delay our negotiations with other providers,” Ald. Bohl said. “As far as I am concerned, MFN has overstayed its welcome with the city on this deal,” said Ald. Bohl. “We’ve already provided them with one deadline that has come and gone, and the time has come to provide them with a short window to finalize the deal, or we move on.”

It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this, but I think I speak for a lot of people in expressing my support of Ald. Murphy and Ald. Bohl for finally speaking out on this issue and calling for some accountability form Midwest Fiber Networks.

Milwaukee should be leading the charge with citywide Wi-Fi access for it’s residents, not being bogged down due to the inaction of any single company.

Bad news for residents of Milwaukee who were anxious to be one of America’s first major cities to have citywide Wi-Fi service: work still hasn’t started.

Last July, I noted how the project was six months behind schedule at the time, but a deal had apparently been reached between the city and Midwest Fiber Networks. That would have put the initial “test” network for the near-west side online in Fall of 2006, with the entire city online by the end of 2007.

However, I’ve been talking to MFN through their PR firm trying to get some updates on the status of the project and it doesn’t look good. Bottom line is that they’re still negotiating with the city, and there’s no timeline on those negotiations being completed. Hence, the clock still hasn’t started ticking on the six months MFN will need to build out just the “test” network.

That 6 month time frame precludes the 18 months for Wi-Fi service throughout the rest of Milwaukee. So even if work were started today, we wouldn’t be looking at completion of this project untill early 2008 at the earliest.

That’s quite a dissapointment for a project that was basically sold on the promise of making Milwaukee “first” to have citywide Wi-Fi access.

So what’s the holdup? Like I said, I’ve been in contact with their PR firm and with one of the owners/principles of Midwest Fiber Networks and received this response to my questions about the delays:

Where we have fallen short of expectations is not anticipating the
amount of time required for contract approvals. The fundamental terms
were approved by Common Council in January, but we did not prepare for
some of the detailed legal review of those terms and just how long it
would take to work through the various partners and affected parties.

Therefore, we have not started the official City Wireless build-out of
the test network yet. We continue to work in the background on the plans and installation procedures in anticipation of the larger project beginning soon. – Donna Raffaelli-Meyer

While it’s hard to not understand the frustrations in working out contacts with a city government, this is also a company who has been working with the city and it’s proceedures for years now.

The sad fact is Milwaukee is no closer to rolling out city-wide Wi-Fi access than it was almost a year ago when this deal was proposed. In the meantime, other major U.S. cities are passing Milwaukee by with their own plans to rollout citywide Wi-Fi access for their residents.

It looks like a “tentative” last minute deal with Midwest Fiber Networks was reached between the company and the city of Milwaukee last Friday that hope alive for a citywide wireless network in Milwaukee.

Once again, details are hard to come by. What I do know is that Midwest Fiber Networks is planning on having it’s “testing area” on Miwaukee’s near-west side up sometime this Fall, and the entire network completed by the end of 2007, or another 18 months away.

…and once again, I continue to be disappointed and increasingly wary of this deal as time goes by. Anyone who works with or in the I.T. industry knows that the more a project slips, the less likely it is to be completed within the original time frame – if at all. When first pitched to the City, Midwest Fiber Networks executives said the “testing area” network would by up by this summer, and the entire project would be completed within 18 months total. Now we’re finding out that 9 months after the initial project was pitched, it’s still 18 months out.

Disappointing developments to say the least. I’ve got some calls and emails out to people about this though to hopefully get more details about where this project is at, and if it’s moving forward.

I’ve been covering the ‘Free’ Milwaukee Wireless story since it broke last Fall, and while I’ve been hopeful that it would go ahead as promised, it now looks like the deal that Milwaukee brokered with Midwest Fiber Networks is no longer a sure thing.

Back in January, I expressed some concern about the proposal:

I’ve been quite vocal about my concern that the city benefits from what I think is going to be a very successful venture. Benefits mean many things of course, but I’ve believed that the common council and the Mayor’s office should look past the “We’re going to be first” appeal of this project to make sure that in our rush to be first, we don’t give away too much to Midwest Fiber Networks in terms of exclusivity and financial considerations.

And at a Common Council meeting earlier this week, it became apparent that the deal wasn’t going so smooth, with Midwest Fiber Networks not keeping with it’s goal of having the near West side of Milwaukee’s new wireless network up and running by early this Summer. It turns out they haven’t even started working on it yet.

In an article the Journal Sentinel ran on these events, the owners of Midwest Fiber Networks couldn’t be reached for comment, which I found more than a bit odd and worrying. These are the same folks who were in front of every reporter and camera they could find last fall when negotiations were taking place – one of the owners even commented on my weblog a few times – and now they’re nowhere to be found.

Dragging their feet to get the work done and not answering media inquires are two troubling signs in this deal from Midwest Fiber Networks, and frankly they have a reputation for this kind of behavior in past deals, which is why I and a number of other IT professionals in Milwaukee expressed concern about the city relying on them for our wireless plans.

There’s supposed to be more information coming out about this soon, and I’ll be sure to pass it along as usual. For now though, the plans for Milwaukee to have wireless coverage anytime soon doesn’t look promising.