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Citywide Wi-Fi Might Not Happen

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MILWAUKEE - The company that planned to build a wireless Internet network across all of Milwaukee is rethinking their plans. Midwest Fiber Networks has a contract with the City of Milwaukee that gives the company rights to complete the project. Midwest Fiber Networks has installed a test section of the wireless system in an area just west of downtown Milwaukee. The test area has been plagued with problems and equipment issues. The company has 50 people testing the new technology but those testers are getting inconsistent results. Some areas of the test section work just fine while other areas do not work well at all. "It looks good on paper - but then when you go to turn it up, there are little bugs that need to be worked out," said Midwest Fiber Networks' Vice President Cheri Grainger. Because of the problems, Midwest Fiber Networks tells TODAY'S TMJ4 they will re-evaluate their plans to build a network that covers the whole city. That means the company will not meet a deadline in the City of Milwaukee contract that stipulates the whole city network should be up and running in early 2008. "I think it was just an over-aggressive, eager deadline up front that was set," said Grainger. "We thought we could get it done in a much shorter time than reality permitted." The company also said that actually building the network will require more equipment than they initially planned. That increased the cost of building the network and now the company wants to study whether it will make financial sense to build the network. The company planned to sell subscriptions to the network that would allow unlimited access throughout the city. The project was proposed nearly two years ago and has been crippled with delays. Some Milwaukee aldermen feel frustrated about the much longer time frame than was initially proposed. Alderman James Bohl said, "I think there are some real questions as to whether or not the vendor here at the city that has received the award can actually get the job done." He continued, "I think there's a lot of questions about Midwest Fiber here at City Hall."

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