The city of Aurora,
Illinois will be taking a giant step toward the development of a free citywide wireless network as they
are set to announce a partnership with MetroFi today. The city
council had originally approved a total of $15 million to build the network, but MetroFi says it
will pay all of the costs of installing and managing the network and will have the ability to sell advertising
on the network. In addition, the city will receive a dedicated, secure network so that city workers can access it while
away from the office.
As part of the agreement, MetroFi will have the ability to to obtain the exclusive rights to install antennas and routers on streetlights all over the city. If the initiative passes, the network could be up and running by the end of this summer.
1. Hello Michael,
I am the consultant on this project. Just a couple of corrections;
1)The City's entire technology initiatives were $15 Million - the Wifi portion was $5.5 Million - the other money was for a fiber infrastructure for municipal goverment.
2)The agreement is NON-EXCLUSIVE - it is a right-of-way and pole attachement agreement.
What makes this work is that MetroFi and SkyPilot were wiling partners and able to build this network out without capitol investment from the taxpayers or the city itself.
This is a great partnership.
Posted at 7:19PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Tony Hylton