Aurora, Illinois is considering a plan to bring citywide wireless broadband access. The city will use the network for municipal operations (public safety) but also offer public access. They have not yet determined which model they will follow. The mayor will introduce the plan this week, together with the 2006 budget. He is seeking $5 million to deploy the network Aurora, Illinois is considering a plan to bring citywide wireless broadband access. The city will use the network for municipal operations (public safety) but also offer public access. They have not yet determined which model they will follow. The mayor will introduce the plan this week, together with the 2006 budget. He is seeking $5 million to deploy the network (the city could also issue bonds to raise the money). An interesting piece of trivia: Aurora was the first city in the US to be wired for street lighting.
Aurora is west of Chicago, covers 38 square miles (98 square kilometers) and has 170,000 residents.
I am pleased to see the continued interest in Muni networks by communities around the country.
It makes my case for the business model much more easier to explain to my clients.
I grew up 100 miles west of Aurora and I am very excited to see them moving into the Muni space.
Kevin D Lampkin
Business Development
Access Anyplace
[...] Aurora, Illinois has chosen MetroFi (the wireless ISP delivering free wireless broadband access to Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Cupertino) to offer the same service to its residents. In the post I wrote last November 2005, the mayor was seeking $5 million to build out a citywide network. I don’t know what happened to his request — is the city paying MetroFi to deploy the network or is MetroFi spending its own money? MetroFi will be using Skypilot equipment for the project. [...]