Wireless Oakland, a municipal wireless network covering Oakland County, MIch., is offline due to lack of funds, Deputy Oakland County Executive and CIO Phil Bertolini said today.
The project’s private-sector partners have been unable to secure the necessary funding to continue to implement the project or to maintain current offerings, which means that wireless service in the seven phase one communities is no longer available.
The total cost of the project has been estimated at $70 million, Bertolini said, but the project’s current financial woes could be remedied with $5 million to $6 million.
In February, officials from Wireless Oakland and Pontiac-based MichTel Communications, L.L.C., the project’s access provider, defended Wireless Oakland’s viability despite an exodus of investors, saying the project was set to begin phase two in May, and to extend full service to the pilot communities, previously recipients of partial coverage.
Supporters haven’t lost hope that the funding to revive and advance the project may materialize.
“Right now there are some people at the table we’re working with who are taking the time to get it all solidified,” Bertolini said, adding that the project won’t use public funds.
If funding isn’t obtained over the next six months, Bertolini said, Wireless Oakland stakeholders must determine what form the project will take in the future.
–Nancy Kaffer is a reporter with Crain’s Detroit Business, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News.
