Residents in Springfield Township should expect to have free wireless internet capabilities by the end of 2007.
After Deputy County Executive Phil Bertolini answered their questions, the Springfield Township board voted unanimously to authorize Supervisor Collin Walls to enter into an agreement with Oakland County for the Wireless Oakland project. Bertolini appeared at the board’s request for a county representative to be present at a meeting. Trustee Dennis Vallad was not in attendance.
The township received a letter from the county in April asking the municipality to review an intergovernmental and license agreement to facilitate the construction of the wireless network.
The board asked several questions about how the system would be constructed and implemented and what kind and types of facilities would be located in the township.
‘If nothing else, we should complement them on giving us the complete information, the agreements are very clear cut. You can understand what the responsibilities are and it was an honest attempt to put together a balanced plan,? said Walls.
‘The county’s goal is to facilitate. We want to get this done so we take all the barriers down so the private sector can build the network,? said Bertolini. ‘We wanted MichTel to focus on getting the service out there. So we sent all the agreements out to the municipalities and said ‘Look, take a look at them and when you’re ready we’ll come, we’ll sit down, we’ll talk and ratify the agreement.? That doesn’t mean we’re going to come in and start tomorrow. What it means is when we’re ready to start, we don’t have any issues that get in the way.?
The agreement states the county:
? is authorized to execute the license agreement on behalf of the municipality for use of public assets.
? must provide a map to the municipality identifying public assets to be used, with the township having approval and disapproval.
? shall not request the construction of new towers.
? shall not receive revenue
? designate an employee to be point of contact and information regarding this issue.
Responsibilities of Township include:
? providing the county with a list of public assets that can be utilized for Wireless Oakland.
‘using its best efforts to assist with installation and implementation of the service including waving local permit fees associated with installation, implementation, operation or maintenance.
? there shall be no costs associated with the implementation and operation of the service to the municipality from the agreement.
? the township will receive no money, revenue or in-kind services from the service.
The agreement is for six years, but the municipality may terminate or cancel the agreement upon 60-days written notice if the county defaults in any obligation and fails to cure the problem in 60 days.
When asked about the technology, Bertolini discussed how the project consists of two pieces of the wireless network: one located at around 250 feet above ground on structures like radio towers and one piece at street level 15-20 feet off the ground using structures like utility and light poles creating the mesh network.
Bertolini explained access points are pieces of equipment about the size of a piece of paper ( 8 inches by 11.5 inches, but several inches thick) mounted 15-20 feet high run on electric power. The signal will talk to a citizen’s equipment from the access point.
‘All you’ll see on the pole is something about ( 8 inches by 11.5 inches) and it will have electric power to it. Technically, nothing will be constructed. There will be no towers constructed, there will be no large buildings constructed to house equipment. None of that will happen, it’s all existing infrastructure,? said Bertolini.
‘We anticipate the signal will penetrate an exterior wall of a home. So that means someone can put another wireless router by their window or wall and pull the signal through their home and use it around their house. We don’t expect it to permeate the entire structure. The reason being, to do that you’d need a lot of signal,? said Bertolini, who explained he doesn’t expect the signal will penetrate a basement, entire building or through larger commercial structures.
Currently, Oakland County is working with private sector partner, MichTel Communications L.L.C.
‘People are wondering how they are going to earn their money. One of the ways we’ve done that is made all those assets available to them at no charge,? said Bertolini.
‘What we’re looking at is making those (assets) free of charge and in return for that we want free internet for everyone in the county. The speed that will be out there free to everyone is 128K up and down, which is about four times faster than standard dial up.?
Customers who want higher speed can purchase the service from MichTel, which can also sell advertisement on the welcoming web page to Wireless Oakland.
‘One other piece of good news is as the fee side, where people buy, ratchets up with technology and technology changes, (the free service) gets faster. It is a requirement of the contract that the free side go up as well. So it won’t be 128K forever,? said Bertolini.
According to Bertolini, 30 municipalities signed up to go first with the initiative. The seven communities selected as pilots include the City of Troy, Birmingham, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Pontiac, Royal Oak and Wixom. The construction of those pilots fell behind a few months due to unexpected issues trying to secure assets like utility poles.
‘It’ll go very fast once construction starts. And there’s some talk it could be a couple of weeks and you could have a pilot done,? said Bertolini.
‘We are planning to have a plan for the entire county very soon? Our anticipated goal is to roll out the entire Oakland County by the end of 2007,? said Bertolini.
‘It’ll go very fast once construction starts. And there’s some talk it could be a couple of weeks and you could have a pilot done,? said Bertolini.
Wireless Oakland was an initiative launched by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson in 2005 with the following goals: to ‘blanket the county with wireless internet service,? address the county’s digital divide, and provide low-cost or no-cost personal computers and technical training to underserved population groups, and develop a telecommunication and planing tool kit to support high tech investments in government and promote integration of these investments with local community character and quality of life.