MuniWireless

Cablevision announced that it has doubled the size of its Long Island wide-area Wi-Fi network to cover locations in Westchester and Connecticut, especially high-traffic areas such as metro and commuter rail stations. Cablevision’s Wi-Fi service is, unfortunately, available only to their existing Optimum Online customers so if you find yourself in their service area and you are from somewhere else, too bad. In that regard, it’s not very useful for outsiders. It’s clear that Cablevision wants to use the service…

Cablevision has launched its Wi-Fi service in various parts of Long Island, but it is available only to customers of Optimum Online. The cable company has set up several Wi-Fi hotzones (they call them community zones) including Long Island Railroad station platforms and parking lots, using equipment from BelAir Networks. It’s unfortunate that non-Optimum Online customers cannot even buy access to use the network, so in my view, it’s not really useful except to people who have Cablevision Optimum Online.…

As our Fire Island Wireless network is closing out its 5th and most successful season, I would like to share a few things I’ve learned as they apply to the Long Island Wi-Fi project. Even though the plug has not been pulled officially, the writing is on the wall for the Long Island Wi-Fi project, and it is an obituary. Cablevision is launching its Optimum Wi-Fi network, offering complimentary access to 2 million wired subscribers over the tri-state area, not…

Long Island’s ambitious Wi-Fi project is stuck yet again, this time on the issue of how much E-Path Communications, the service provider chosen by Nassau and Suffolk Counties after a public tender, should pay Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) for pole mounting rights. LIPA says E-Path should pay $50 annually per pole because it is a wireless company; but E-Path says it is a telecommunications provider (i.e. a cable company or a landline telco) and is eligible for the super…

The New York Times criticized Suffolk and Nassau counties’ decision to go with E-Path Communications to deploy a large Wi-Fi network in Long Island. The network is seriously delayed and no one really believes it will ever go live. The NYT says: “The lesson, which Mr. Levy [Suffolk County Executive] and others were warned about last year and ignored, is that public wi-fi needs public dollars, and that the investment is probably worth it.”

I have a problem with these black…

The Suffolk-Nassau counties’ Wi-Fi network across Long Island has missed the target launch date and there are doubts that E-Path Communications, the service provider who won the bid to unwire the two counties, will ever finish the project. E-Path is also expected to miss the launch of its pilot project in Delray Beach, Florida.

E-Path’s deal with the counties requires no public monies being spent on the deployment of the network or on an anchor tenancy. EarthLink and MetroFi had similar…