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March 21, 2008

City’s wireless network could broaden coverage

Daniel McDonald

Efforts to deliver wireless Internet in Milledgeville took a surprising turn Thursday when the city’s broadband consultant unveiled a plan that could create a wireless network covering nearly 75 percent of Baldwin County.

“This is significantly more coverage than the eight miles we originally talked about,” Mayor Richard Bentley said.

Consultant Karl Edwards of Alpharetta stepped in to add: “It’s not 20 miles, but it’s probably more like 16 or 17 miles [of coverage].”

Edwards reserved release of the Internet service provider pending a vote in Tuesday’s scheduled City Council meeting.

City officials initially had entered into negotiations with Delaware-based communications firm Solutrea to create a WiFi wireless network, but left the door open to explore different technological solutions to the city’s unique situation.

Through research by Edwards and City Planner Russell Thompson, officials see the opportunity to receive more return on their investment by using an emerging technology called WiMAX.

WiMAX technology broadcasts a radial wireless Internet signal similar to the way cell phone services operate and requires fewer transmitters to cover a larger area than WiFi technology. WiFi uses many less-powerful transmitters to send a signal to different areas.

Edwards said Milledgeville would require five transmitters throughout the area on water towers and existing utility towers to cover a service area nearly twice the size provided through Solutrea’s proposed WiFi network.

Users would buy subscriptions to the service to receive a hardware device that would allow their computer to connect to the network.

In exchange for the city’s $800,000 made possible through a Wireless Communities Georgia Program grant awarded by the Georgia Technology Authority last year, and the use of city towers to anchor network infrastructure, Milledgeville would join in a performance-based partnership where the city receives a percentage of each network subscription.

Edwards estimates a successful wireless network in Milledgeville could generate between $200,000 and $1 million dollars in revenue for the city. Revenue estimates depend on the number of subscribers.

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