MuniWireless

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…