Milwaukee's WiFi plans become problematic

Milwaukee's plan for a muni-WiFi network will likely not see the light of day given the fact that the test area of the network is fraught with network bugs and equipment problems. Midwest Fiber Networks has a contract with the city that gives it rights to complete the project across the entire city, but because of the problems, Midwest Fiber may re-evaluate its plans to build a network that blankets the city. It also won't meet the deadline that is stipulated in its contract with the City of Milwaukee. It states that the entire city should be up and running by early 2008.

I like the honesty of Midwest Fiber's Cheri Grainger, a vice president with the company: "I think it was just an over-aggressive, eager deadline up front that was set. We thought we could get it done in a much shorter time than reality permitted."

Midwest Fiber said it also needs more equipment to build out a city-wide network--more than originally planned. That increased cost may just make it bow out of the contract.

For more about the City of Milwaukee's WiFi woes:
- read this article from TMJ4