MuniWireless

Winston-Salem has decided to shelve its citywide wireless project. The city reposted its Request for Proposals, but failed to receive any credible bid. Azulstar, the company that won the initial bid, pulled out of the project in March this year. They have a 1 square mile demonstration site running in the downtown area. The equipment has since been removed. According to Lynda Goff, IBM and Cisco remain committed to the project if a service provider will come forward. Azulstar has…

Sacramento has chosen Metro Connect, the same consortium that won the Silicon Valley wireless project, to build a citywide wireless broadband network that is scheduled to go live in 2009. The Sacramento city council has chosen Metro Connect LLC, a joint venture of Cisco, Intel, SeaKay and Azulstar, to deploy a citywide Wi-Fi network that is scheduled to go live in autumn 2009. The city will be an anchor tenant; it will buy broadband access from Metro Connect.

There is free…

While EarthLink re-evaluates its position in the muni market, Azulstar is quietly upping the ante.While EarthLink re-evaluates its position in the muni market, Azulstar is quietly upping the ante.

Azulstar’s appointment of IBM’s muni wireless point man, Yorke Rhodes III, as its new CEO last month got lost in the headlines surrounding EarthLink’s announced re-evaluation. But don’t let its relegation to the back of the business section go unnoticed; Rhodes is out to shake up the market.

In press releases and interviews…

Brownsville, Texas, will pay IBM $4 million to design and deploy a WiMAX-Wi-Fi municipal network.Brownsville, Texas, will pay IBM $4 million to design and deploy a WiMAX-Wi-Fi municipal network.

According to a story on Telecommunications Online, the design calls for construction of three WiMAX towers to cover the area. The city intends to use the network primarily for municipal applications.

The business model is an example of one in which a city is fully outaourcing the design, construcion and operation of its…