Comments on: Ocean City, NJ Issues RFP for municipal wireless network

By: Susan Crowe

Susan Crowe — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:33:15 +0000

Yeah, well…looks like everyone was right because it never came about!

By: Phil Tosches

Phil Tosches — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:31:14 +0000

Its really strange how few elected officials exhibit any business sense whatsoever – but then again, I suppose as long as there are desperate companies without a clue how to effectively run a business (read:for profit) there will always poor saps willing to throw their money at a hopeless project like this one. It is far worse than Frank describes above – EVERYONE gets free access (locals, tourists, businesses) except for something they call “Business Class Service” which is not defined. Seeing as Ocean City, NJ is widely known as the hub for commerce in the North Eastern US, I don’t see how a company would have any trouble at all recouping the costs of what appears to be a completely free service that the city gets to own at no cost. In fact – there doesn’t seem to be a cost for anyone at all except for the silly company DUMB enough (or unlucky enough) to actually win the RFP.

How sad what a mess the local gov’ts are making out of something as brutally useful as wi-fi.

Seems Earthlink has quietly learned their lesson about silly business models such as this one and have stopped hinging their company’s future by hitching their wagons to the uneducated morons we have running our local town governments. Google has quietly learned their lesson about how 1 cent per click ads cannot support a wi-fi infrastructure. When are the towns themselves going to learn??? WI-FI CANNOT BE FREE YOU IDIOTS!!!!

Wake up.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:25:26 +0000

Hmmmmmm….ok, some company comes in and spends a ton of money, does a lot of install work, supports the customer base, makes repairs, gives access away to the city (for free), gives access away to vacationers (who are the bulk of the entire business but who are only around for three months), sell subscriptions to everyone else (at city dictated rates), who likely already have internet access. Oh and here’s the best part – for the priveledge of all this, they do not even get to keep the network. WHATS IN IT FOR THE COMPANY? Looks like not a thing – pathetic.

I think the Ocean City board has been watching too many episodes of the Sopranos…I’d like to see the company that dumb enough to “win” this contract.

By: Ted Teofilak

Ted Teofilak — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:41:07 +0000

They must be smoking something. Ocean City is a seasonal town that is crowded during the summer months (120,000) and a ghost town (15,000) for the rest of the year. I don’t see how any investor could make money at this.

I think the city can offer up their infrastructure to any investor who may want to build (and own) a city-wide network in exchange for reduced rates for fire, police, water, beach tags, whatever.