Officials in Suffolk and Nassau counties aspired to cover 750 square miles with a municipal wireless network estimated to cost $105 million. Two pilot projects were to have been deployed by December by E-Path Communications, the private partner based in Tampa, Fla, that was selected for the job. But according to The Long Island Business News, “E-Path’s done none of the work.”
That’s not too surprising. We had doubts about this overly ambitious project from the start. E-Path promised free access and planned to offset its costs through advertising and anchor tenant sponsorships. Not only has it failed to attract either, the Long Island Power Authority has not granted E-Path access to install antennae on its utility poles.
What’s more, the counties that were initially enthusiastic about the project, haven’t finalized terms for municipal involvement in the network. As The LI Business News observed, “When municipalities don’t chip in, the plans fail.”
According to the report, “E-Path also hopes to recoup costs by offering paid access for Internet in the home. But with Cablevision touting 1.2 million Internet subscribers and Verizon adding subscribers as part of its FiOS rollout, it’s not clear there’s a real demand for E-Path’s services.”
Click here to read the story.
As somebody quoted in the article, I expand my sound bite in the story in this blog entry: http://www.cedx.com/2008/03/long-island-wi.html