According to James Anderson, writing in the Minnesota Daily – the student-produced newspaper on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota – Minneapolis is about to become the largest municipal wireless area in the country.
The plan, which is about a year behind schedule, is targeted for completion by spring 2009. It was delayed when several densely populated areas needed additional poles installed to hold the transmitters for the signal.
This is not a city-owned nor -operated system. USI Wireless, a private company, is behind the project. Minneapolis, however, is one of USI’s biggest customers; the City will run its police and fire public safety network over the new wireless system. City representatives hope that this network will provide them with greater bandwidth and quicker connection speeds.
USI currently has 11,000 paid subscribers to the network that offers one, three and six megabyte packages. According to the article, a one-year subscription to the largest package will cost less than 50% of the service now provided by Comcast.
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