Missed opportunity in Minneapolis

Submitted by acohill on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 12:58

The city of Minneapolis negotiated a deal with the wireless provider US Internet last year to provide a citywide wireless system. As part of that deal, the city is receiving about a half a million dollars a year for ten years. The funds will be used to support community portals for neighborhoods in the city. Planning for those portals is taking place right now. It is a great idea, but the city left a lot of money on the table.

Over the next thirty years, the residents and businesses of Minneapolis (Minneapolis only, not St. Paul) will spend 8.4 billion dollars ($8,403,268,500.00) on telecom services, and so there is plenty of money to build not just wireless but the world's best, full integrated fiber and wireless system, to every home and business in the city. Over thirty years, such a city-managed multi-service open network, designed with end to end automated Layer 3 provisioning, could put nearly 600 million dollars in city coffers ($594,041,030.00). That's a bit more than the projected $11 million from wireless.