Milwaukee Citywide Wireless Negotiations Update

The Milwaukee common council’s Public Works Committee met yesterday to discuss possible terms of compensation between Milwaukee and the company planning to roll out the citywide wireless network, Midwest Fiber Networks. This is something I’ve been writting about for almost two months now, and am pleased to see the negotiations get to this point.

Although the committee closed it’s doors during the meeting (a common practice when discussing financial strategies and bargaining), this tidbit did leak out yesterday via a Journal Sentinel reporter:

The city’s initial proposal was valued at about $500,000 a year and included payment into a fund for helping low-income people get computers, as well as 50-free sites for anyone tapping into the system and other considerations. (Milwaukee CIO) Gschwind said discussions now may shift to tying compensation to a scale, so that it would rise as the network is up and the company is able to generate profits.

That last part is key and something I’m happy is on the table. It’s only fair that the amount of compensation Milwaukee receives from MFN scales in line with the amount of compensation that MFN receives from the companies it’s selling access rights to.

This type of ’scalable compensation model’ is a win for both sides I think, because it allows MFN to perhaps get the service started with a lesser initial investment on their end than they might otherwise have to cough up in a more traditional ’static compensation’ scheme. It allows them to divert critical initial capital that otherwise would have gone to city compensation back into their business to keep it growing and strong during the initial phase of this project.

It also benefits the city of Milwaukee by ensuring that as the service that MFN is selling to consumers takes off, the city will always get a fair cut of that success by mitigating the initial low risk of the venture against a probable future profit.

It’s also encouraging to see the issue of low income computer ownership on the table.. It’s one that has been brought up here before, and again, I’m happy that the common council members are keeping that issue in mind.

There is supposedly another meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) about the negotiations, and I’ll try to post any info as I get it.

Comments are closed.