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Click here: Oakland picks 7 wi-fi suburbs
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PONTIAC -- They are the chosen ones: seven Oakland County communities anointed as test project sites in an ambitious plan to make Oakland the first county in America with free Internet service anywhere, anytime.
Birmingham, Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Oak Park, Pontiac, Troy and Wixom will serve as a starting point for Wireless Oakland.
The $100 million program will blanket all 910 square miles within Oakland County with wireless Internet service by the end of 2007.
"We are going to make history with Wireless Oakland. It will transform how we do business," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who announced the communities Monday.
The pilot program targets 18.5 square miles of Oakland County and affects 78,172 people, 35,277 households, 43 educational institutions and 29 government facilities.
The goal of wireless service is for anyone who pulls open a wi-fi-enabled laptop computer in their front yard, inside their SUV or on a park bench can tap into the World Wide Web. Wireless hot spots, or areas with wireless capabilities in place, exist throughout Metro Detroit, largely in public libraries and coffee shops, bars and restaurants.
Wireless equipment can also be installed in homes to create residential hot spots, and several state parks have wireless capability. Officials say countywide wireless service will make Oakland County irresistible to any tech-minded company looking for a new home.
"We want the Internet to be available to everyone in this county. It's essential for our work force," said Phil Bertolini, deputy county executive and chief informational officer.
Michael Lauer, a cardiologist from Rochester Hills, said wireless access across the county would change the way he works and lives, which is often according to where he can get wireless access. Lauer spent several hours Monday morning at a Panera Bread in Troy using wireless service there to check e-mail, submit banking transactions and download files.
"Having it everywhere would increase the flexibility to get online at a moment's notice instead of changing your day around to fit it in somewhere," Lauer said.
Only portions of the seven communities will become wireless in the first phase. Seven square miles of Troy will have wireless access, while one-quarter of a square mile of Wixom -- mostly a mixed-use development -- will have the service. Downtown centers in Birmingham, Royal Oak and Pontiac are included in the program.
Work inside the test sites will be started by the end of 2005 and should be completed during the first three months of 2006.
MichTel Communications, a private technology firm in Pontiac, was selected by Oakland County to be the provider. Twelve other companies competed for the job, but MichTel made such a strong impression with its free Internet offering during the Arts, Beats & Eats festival that it won the job and praise from Patterson.
MichTel and its team of partners will own, operate and maintain the project. Internet service at a speed faster than dial-up but slower than DSL will be offered for free across the county. Higher-end service will be available for a fee; the price was not announced Monday, but Tony Vitale of MichTel said the cost would be less than $20 per month.
Patterson stressed that no taxpayer dollars will be used in the initiative, including the program's second phase, which involves providing free and low-cost computers to low-income residents.
The network will be built using some 2,400 publicly owned access points, such as traffic lights and telephone poles. County leaders say the initiative will lure tech-savvy businesses and jobs to Oakland, while detractors question the need for government involvement and whether the service is incentive enough to lure businesses. Patterson's vision is based on a theory that companies would flock to a county so cutting-edge that the Internet floats through the air, where they can capture it for free and use it to make money.
A total of 31 Oakland County communities applied to be chosen as test sites. Patterson said those areas not chosen in the first round will be included in the second and third phases. He hopes public pressure will force the communities -- including Southfield and Novi -- that didn't submit applications to do so.
You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com.
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The Detroit News.
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