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
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.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
The underlying problem is that the state has tied the hands of local municipalities with legislation that makes virtually impossible to develop alternatives to the Cable and Telephone Company duopoly. What we need is an open access infrastructure where multiple carriers and Internet providers can offer services. An open market place for TCP/IP based services. Open markets lead to better service at lower cost.
State law, that was darn near written by AT&Ts predecessor, restricts municipalities from providing such infrastructure, or even creating a cooperative public/private initiative. Thus we are left with the hand as dealt. In this case MWFN. In the mean time, the telephone and cable companies will increasingly limit access to competitors and they will find grounds to eliminate franchise fees to municipalities.
A good municipal core network has financial, educational, law enforcment, fire, health, and emergency service benefits.
Using, as a model, something like of Wellington New Zealand, Milwaukee could build a shared infrastructure network around a “MUSH†(municipality, universities, schools and hospitals) core that would benefit both local government and local business.
…but for our tied hands; hands tied by telecomm lobbyists.
“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.†— RFK
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“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.†— RFK