Delray Beach, Fla., to deploy Wi-Fi network
The city council of Delray Beach, Florida, has approved a contract with Delray Beach Wi-Fi Inc. to build a citywide Wi-Fi network this year.The city council of Delray Beach, Florida, has approved a contract with Delray Beach Wi-Fi Inc. to build a citywide Wi-Fi network this year.
The network, to be built in three phases by the company, a joint venture of e-Path Communications Inc., ATC International Inc. and The Vision Team LLC.
The chief goal of the deployment appears to be the city’s interest in addressing the digital divide and providing high-speed broadband access to its residents at a competitive rate.
In a press release, Joseph Tortoretti, President and CEO of e-Path Communications, said “we’re funding the installation of the network and will recoup our investment by selling high-speed Internet access to residents and businesses at prices that will be competitive with other high-speed providers. The value added is that users of Delray Beach Wi-Fi will be supporting local efforts to close the digital divide, which benefits the whole community.”
I asked David Hurwitz, president of business development for e-Path, whether Delray Beach Wi-Fi’s deal with the city also encompassed provisions such as anchor tenancy or commitments by the city to deploy municipal applicaitons as a customer on the network.
He said they did not but that the city was interested in exploring opportunities for achieving efficiencies by using the network. Hurwitz said they expected to begin to explore available applications “as early as next week.”
Delray Beach Wi-Fi will offer free outdoor service for up to four hours in a corridor along Atlantic Avenue. Additionally, it will supply 100 computers to low-income families and 200 free household accounts to low-income families with students and children at home; other low-income families with children will receive a reduced rate of $9.99 per month. Rates for households that do not qualify for the reduced rate will be $19.99 to $24.99 per month, Hurwitz said.
The city, located in central Palm BeachCounty, covers 16 square miles and is home to 64,000 households.
Click here to read the press release.
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