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Oakland County to go Wireless

Posted by Zonk on from the yay-civics-projects dept.

y00nix writes "Oakland County, MI has plans to roll out a wireless Internet access program dubbed "Wireless Oakland" covering all 910 square miles inside the county. County Executive L. Brooks Patterson unveiled the plans at last night's State of the County address. Additional press coverage via the Oakland Press, and the The Detroit News." Similar in concept to Philadelphia's plans covered yesterday.

5 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. big whoop. by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Grand Haven, MI has had this for months now.

    Their service has expanded quite a bit and they are planning on covering a 3 county area within 2 years.

    works great, and is not a government run operation as proposed in many other places.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Clarification by XorNand · · Score: 4, Informative
    Ok, I need to clarify things: This is NOT being funded by tax dollars. The Detroit Free Press makes this point a bit more clear than the submitter's articles. As I wrote in a reply below:
    "The companies involved here will be providing basic access for free and charging those who want faster acccess. The assumption is that the powerusers will be subsidizing the freeloaders. In fact, I believe the county is planning on charging a franchise fee, making this actually a source of income."
    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  3. Re:Taxes by Dragoon412 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The article points out that they don't want to use tax money to fund this. It's sort of a tradeoff. The county builds towers and the physical infrastructure to run the program, and, in turn, private companies run the whole show in exchange for access to the towers for other ventures.

    I could definitely see someone like Sprint or Verizon getting on board with this.

  4. Re:Yay Government Waste... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article says it is a plan to attract high-tech professionals. That would potentially increase their tax base.

    Also:

    "Many residents would want to keep higher-speed connections, said Bertolini, and would pay a fee for that. The county wants to avoid using tax dollars for the project."

  5. Re:As a former resident of Oakland County... by biobogonics · · Score: 2, Informative

    my take is: what's the point? Oakland is one of the richest counties in the U.S.A.

    Patterson is a big name politician who loves technology. Does any one remember if "Automation Alley", which Patterson promoted heavily, lived up to its promises? It's really about attracting business, and expanding the tax rolls.

    As a former resident of Oakland county, I take Patterson with a _large_ grain of salt.