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Tempe City-Wide Wireless Snags
Triumph The Insult C writes "About a month ago, the dot carried a story about the city of Tempe, AZ, laying claim to be the first major metropolitan area to provide city-wide broadband internet access. Well, things haven't gone exactly as planned, as one of the companies involved, MobilePro Corp, is now being investigated by the state for not holding the appropriate permits. As a resident of downtown Tempe, I hope the rollout isn't successful, as I would much prefer to see a more community-based effort, such as in Seattle, Austin, and New York City."
http://www.tempe.gov/business/wifi/
the AP's have to physically be located somewhere, and use electricity somebody is paying for. They'll need permits for all of this.
From the tempe.gov site posted below:
"In return for MobilePro's agreement to build and operate a Municipal network for the City's use, Tempe agrees to grant limited use of the City street light infrastructure and existing fiber backhaul locations for Mobile Pro to deploy its network."
From TFA:
"Dave Heck, deputy manager of information technology for Tempe, said MobilePro should be treated like other communications firms that do not need a license to build wireless systems because they plan to use a subcontractor to install the network.
But after reviewing city records, the chief of licensing officer for the registrar's office asked for an investigator to be assigned, saying companies that build onto existing infrastructure must register with the state.
To construct the wireless network, MobilePro plans to add infrastructure - such as antennas - to city-owned stoplights and street lamps."
The actual issue seems to be that the company (MobilePro Corp.) isn't registered with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors. The city officals, however, say the company doesn't need a general contractors license, so they are planning to continue with the construction.
This seems to be Local vs. State issue and while the State doesn't seem to be able to directly cancel the project, they can boot the company out of the state, so they'd need a new company to add to the infrastructure as they are planning to build the Wi-Fi.
"Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write it should be hard to understand."
as a matter of fact, i have met and discussed the idea of a community based effort with a handful of people
but having to deal with DTC is not particularly easy. DTC is not a particularly pleasant organization. retribution is definitely within their capabilities. the city gov't is much the same (imo)
vodka, straight up, thank you!