MuniWireless

The Sacramento City Council voted to terminate the agreement with Sacramento Metro Connect, a consortium composed of IBM, Cisco and Seakay, for the deployment of a citywide wireless broadband network that would have provided free Wi-Fi access. The city council says that the consortium failed to come up with funds to set up the network.

Since the time that the city awarded the contract, other municipalities that have tried to get a network built at no cost to the city, but have failed. The network would have cost $15 million at a minimum, but without the city’s participation as an anchor tenant (i.e. using the network for municipal applications such as public safety), it would have been difficult for the consortium to get an immediate return on its investment.