Minneapolis has selected local company US Internet to build the city’s wireless network. A City Council vote to finalize the deal is expected on Friday. It looks like Minneapolis residents will be able to access the 1mbps network for about $20/month. Some residents might need to purchase a special “wireless” modem to boost their signal for cost of $75 or a rental fee of $5/month. For the sake of comparison, Qwest offers 256 Kbps DSL (about 25% of the speed of the proposed wireless network) for $27. Needless to say, Qwest is not happy with news that it will have to compete with a municipal network.
Some of you may remember that I served on a digital inclusion task force to develop recommendations for the “community benefits” portion of the contract. It appears that USI accepted most of them (you can read the Task Force’s report here). Prices for consumers and businesses will be fixed for a decade. I am disappointed that no free option is available for low-income residents, but USI did agree to provide a free “walled garden” that contains access to basic municipal and neighborhood information. Additionally, USI will contribute $500,000 to the startup of a Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Fund and it will contribute an annual percentage of its profits to the Fund.
Let’s hope the network functions as promised and that it will provide a real alternative to the Qwest/Comcast duopoly. The community benefits portion of the contract is truly innovative and other cities would be well served to use it as a model if they choose to contract with a private vendor for their own municipal WiFi.
