MuniWireless

The town of Springfield, Michigan (pop. 5000) began offering Wi-Fi service to its residents this week. Using a $750,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Springfield hired ACD to deploy the network throughout the municipality. ACD is using equipment from Zhone Technologies.

Wi-Fi is already available in some parts of the community; other neighborhoods are scheduled to be “unwired” in the coming weeks. They are charging $10 per month for access. It’s not clear whether residents will have to buy…

The Detroit Free Press posted a good summary of city and county wireless projects in Michigan: Wireless Oakland county, one of the most publicized countywide wireless projects, has a running pilot program, but the county has delayed the expansion of the network throughout its jurisdiction. Similarly, Washtenaw county with its 28 square mile network, has run into difficulty convincing investors to expand its network. Click here to read about what’s happening in Wayne, Macomb and Livingston counties.

In none of the…

Ottawa County’s on-again-off-again plan to bring wireless broadband service to all county residents is on again. County Administrator Al Vanderberg announced last week that the county is nearing a partnership agreement to make the service a reality. The county’s Planning Department, he said in his state of the county address, “has worked tirelessly through company mergers and technology changes to move the system forward.” Details could be announced today.

Ottaway County in western Michigan has been exploring a countywide network since 2004…

In the wake of EarthLink’s retreat from the market and a general absence of vendor partners willing to foot the bill to build out free city-wide networks, it seems that more and more cities are finding Meraki Networks’ community-based approach attractive. The latest is Ypsilanti, Michigan, which will use the Meraki model to provide free wireles Internet access to residents and tourists downtown.

The downtown service, announced this week, is a result of the efforts of Wireless Ypsi and the largesse…

With a pilot project supporting seven local communities up and running, the service provider building and operating the wireless network for Oakland County, Mich., is putting a hold on further build-out until private investors commit to funding the reminder of the project’s deployment. Oakland County CIO Phil Bertolini said MichTel Communications LLC, the builder and ultimate owner of the network, is hoping to close commitments for much, if not all, of the estimated $70 million it estimates will be needed…

Residents of Westland, Michigan, began receiving free dial-up access to the Internet this week, thanks to an initiative of the local library designed to address the digital divide.

As of today, persons who are 50 or older can sign up. Those younger than 50 will be eligible come April, according to a report in the Detroit Free-Press. However, they must already have a computer and modem. The city of 86,000 will be using 123.net as its service provider.

The idea is drawing…